Chickweed is a delicious salad green abundant in Portland right now. The yummy handful I grabbed in the photo above is growing on the side of a rocky path at the Sandy River Delta. Below, you can see a close-up of a chickweed plant I found in a patch of unmowed grass on a corner of Alberta Street in the city.
You can identify chickweed by looking for a thin line of peach fuzz type hairs climbing the stalk in a spiral staircase. If the plant’s stem is hairy all the way around, it’s not chickweed. Also, look for that star-shaped flower. It’s called Stellaria media for a reason.
[...] ChickweedChickweed (Stellaria media) – Eat the leaves, flowers and stems to bring down a high fever. [...]