Wild liquorice (Astragalus glycyphyllos)
has the alternative name of milk-vetch, from the former commonly held belief
that goats that ate the plant would yield more milk.
It grows in scattered location in Great Britain, in rough
grassy places on chalk and limestone, but is absent from Ireland. It is a
temperate plant that is also found across much of northern and central Europe as
far east as the Caucasus.
Wild liquorice is difficult to spot because it often grows among
tall grasses and its greenish-cream flowers blend with the colour of its
foliage.
It is a straggling plant that can grow up to 40 inches (100
cm) in height. It has smooth, trailing stems and many hairless leaflets. The
stems bend each time they give rise to a leaf, which makes them zigzag.
The plant flowers in July and August, many flowers being
carried on stalks that are shorter than the leaves. The pods are smooth and
curved, with a central division such that several seeds are produced on each
side of the “wall”.
Wild liquorice is not the plant from which laxatives and food
flavourings are produced. However, the root stems of both wild and true
liquorice can be chewed – the botanical name glycyphyllos means “sweet stem”.
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