Sanguisorba minor, the salad burnet, garden burnet, small burnet, burnet (also used for Sanguisorba generally), pimpernelle, Toper's plant, and burnet-bloodwort, is an edible perennial herbaceous plant in the family Rosaceae. It has ferny, toothed-leaf foliage; the unusual crimson, spherical flower clusters rise well above the leaves on thin stems. It generally grows to 25–55 cm (9.8–21.7 in) tall (moisture-dependent; as short as 2 cm in dry areas). The large, long (sometimes 1m/3-foot), taproots store water, making it drought-tolerant.
It is evergreen to semi-evergreen; in warmer climates grows all year around, and in cold climates it stays green until heavy snow cover occurs. Plants may live over 20 years, though 7–12 is more usual; it lives longer if sometimes permitted to set seed. Burnet flowers in early summer.
Subspecies include muricata, minor, and mongolii (the last from the Mediterranean).
Occurrence
Salad burnet is native to western, central and southern Europe; northwest Africa, southwest Western Asia and Siberia. In Britain, it is not native, but has been naturalized since the 16th century. It has also naturalized in most of North America, in South America, Australia, and New Zealand. It is not generally invasive, co-existing with other plants and increasing species diversity. As of 2008 it had been reported as invasive in just one place, a pasture in Wyoming. The variables controlling salad burnet spread in North America are poorly studied.
In Europe it is found only in calcerous soils (see limestone), and is most common on chalk soils (see chalk) in England. In France, it grows on alluvial meadows, and in the south of France, on Kermes oak maquis (a Quercus coccifera shrubland ecosystem with siliceous soil) and garrigue (a shrubland ecosystem with calcareous soil). In Spain, it grows on silaceous soils.
In North America the species is probably much less diverse, due to founder effects and heavy selective breeding for forage value,...
