Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor)

Salad burnet is a member of the rose (Rosaceae) family.  It has compound leaves, each with 4 - 12 pairs of rounded leaflets with toothed edges. The small, dense flowers form crimson balls that grow on long stems.
 
A useful perennial, with a flavour reminiscent of cucumbers, salad burnet leaves make a good ingredient in early spring and autumn salads. The leaves get tough and bitter in summer time, but plants can be cut right back to produce further flushes of new tender growth.
 
It's an easy growing plant that appears early in the season and holds up well in heat. It forms a clump and stays pretty well contained and controlled, growing in a loose rosette. However, it can spread by rhizomes and it will self-seed. Salad burnet is not fussy about soil type and will grow in full sun or part shade.
 
Seeds are fairly easy to grow. They can be started in trays indoors and transplanted out in late spring, but they are probably better sown directly if you can, about two weeks before the last expected frost in your area. Cover seeds only lightly – 3-4mm – and keep moist until they sprout. Seedlings can be thinned out to 25-30cm apart (you can use the thinnings in a salad).
 
Mature plants can be dug up and divided in spring or autumn, to make new plants.