'Salad Burnet'
Sanguisorba minor

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 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.

Uses
Young burnet leaves are used as an ingredient in salads, dressings, sauces, summer drinks, and in claret. It is also used to flavor vinegar, butter, and cream cheese.

It has a flavor described as "mildly cucumber, a bit tart, a little hot" and is considered interchangeable with mint leaves in some recipes, depending on the intended effect. Typically, the youngest leaves are used, as they tend to become bitter as they age; old leaves are cut back to encourage new growth.

Salad burnet was called a favorite herb by Francis Bacon, was brought to the New World with the first English colonists, and was given special mention by Thomas Jefferson. It declined in popularity as a kitchen herb, but as of 2022, is becoming more popular again, for food and as an ornamental.

The unusual crimson, ball-shaped blooms are carried aloft on tall, thin stems, well above the ferny, toothed-leaf foliage. The leaves are often considered more ornamental than the flowers, which are often removed to encourage more foliage growth. However, the cut flowers are used in floral arrangements.

Herb information provided by Wikipedia, which is released under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0

RECIPES

Spring Salad with Snow Peas & Edible Flowers

Ingredients
Green leaf lettuce
Red leaf lettuce
4 or 5 green onions, to taste
15 or so fresh snow peas or as many as you have in the garden
Fresh chives – 1 tbsp. chopped greens, 8 blossoms, snipped and 5 buds
Fresh parsley – lots
Fresh salad burnet
Fresh fennel (optional)
Fresh lemon verbena (optional)
Violets or violas or burnet flowers

Directions
Wash all ingredients in cold water. Shake off excess water. Tear lettuce leaves in pieces and put in bottom of bowl. Chop and add green onions and herbs. Make sure to use tender chive blossoms that haven’t been open too long, and salad burnet that is not yet bitter. If available, a few fennel sprigs and lemon verbena leaves make a nice addition. Top with violet, viola, or burnet flowers.