IT is generally possible to judge people’s fondness for, or familiarity with, a plant by the number of names it has accumulated over the years. For example, that tiny denizen of the cracks between paving stones, procumbent pearlwort, seen, but unnoticed by people every day, has only four local names, whereas wood sorrel has about 100. It is a delicate beauty in leaf and a glorious one when in white flower. It is also edible. No wonder, then, that people know and love it.
Wood sorrel is one of the trefoil plants that has been accepted as the shamrock, the plant that St Patrick used to teach the Irish peoples the meaning of the Trinity. Incidentally, anyone who knows their
