[Herbs Index] Botanical Culinary Aromatic Spiritual Medicinal History/Folklore

Nasturtium - Tropæolum majus & T. minus ('Pygmeae')

Grown & used at BridesMill

Other Names:

T. majus T. minus

Indian Cress, Climbing Nasturtium, Garden Nasturtium, Lark's Heel, Yellow Larkspur, Common Nasturtium Dwarf Nasturtium.

Grande capucine

Blomsterkarse, Landløber, Tallerkensmækker, Tropæolum

Oostindische kers

Grosse Kapuzinerkresse, Kapuzinerkresse

Nasturzio comune

Blomkarse, Blomsterkarse

Nasturcja, Nasturcja wieksza

Настурция (Nasturtsiya), Капуцин (Kaputsin)

Notes

Taxonomy: Family - Tropaeolaceae

Habit: T. minus Beautiful, bright yellow,orange, red & variegated 2-3" flowers. Blooms June till frost. Easy to grow. Majus can tend to get leggy in poor dry soil, with vines up to 10'; minus is a bit more controlled & grows 6-8" tall. Fairly to quite resistant to insects. Annual
Propagation: By seed immediately after last frost. Germinates in about a week. Can self-seed and naturalize in rich areas.
Harvesting: Flowers & young leaves. Seeds for faux-capers (cf. the Culinary section) before they dry.

Uses:

Culinary:

Flowers edible; peppery flavour. Leaves also edible, with a caper-like peppery flavour. Seeds can be ground and used as a pepper substitute, or pickled like capers. Flowers are excellent added to salads or as garnish to other dishes & soups, as are leaves (the smaller, the spicier). (cf. cautions)

Recipes:
Pickled Nasturtium Pods or Seeds After the blossoms fall, pick off the half-ripened Nasturtium seed pods. Continue as your crop develops to drop them into a boiled and strained mixture of: 1 quart white wine vinegar 2 teaspoons Pickling Salt 1 thinly sliced onion 1/2 teaspoon each allspice, mace and celery seed 3 peppercorns Keep refrigerated and use as a variation for capers. Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer. 'The Joy of Cooking', Becker, Bobbs-Merrill, New York, 1975 Nasturtium Vinegar Loosely fill a quart jar with clean nasturtium flowers. Add a finely chopped shallot, a very small piece of garlic, and a piece of red pepper. Fill the jar with cold vinegar, and let stand 2 months. Add 1 t of salt, strain through several thicknesses of cheesecloth and store in sterilized jars closely sealed. from Silkia in http://sunsite.unc.edu/herbmed/culiherb.html

Spiritual

(European traditions):none noted

Properties: Correspondences:

(American Aboriginal traditions) none noted

Cosmetic/Aromatic: nil

Medicinal

(European traditions): none noted
(American Aboriginal traditions): The Peruvian Indians utilized the natural antibiotic qualities of nasturtium leaves to treat coughs - this is worth trying, as in any case they are nutritious.

CAUTIONS: Some people find the young leaves to be hot - if you don't like spicy stuff, test in moderation first.

Complete ethnobotanical notes and references available on request

Last edited 9 February 2002

	T. majus	T. minus
	Indian Cress, Climbing Nasturtium, Garden Nasturtium, Lark's Heel, Yellow Larkspur, Common Nasturtium	Dwarf Nasturtium.
	Grande capucine
	Blomsterkarse, Landløber, Tallerkensmækker, Tropæolum
	Oostindische kers
	Grosse Kapuzinerkresse, Kapuzinerkresse

	Nasturzio comune
	Blomkarse, Blomsterkarse
	Nasturcja, Nasturcja wieksza
	Настурция (Nasturtsiya), Капуцин (Kaputsin)


Notes