Edible: Fruit & Flowers

Description: A small tree growing up to 5m tall

Native to: Damsons are native to Europe and Great Britain

Use: The damson tree is thought to be the ancestor of the common plum we eat today. Damsons are a type of plum that can be eaten raw or cooked. They have a sharp/sweet flavor that works in sweet and savory food. The flowers are also edible, and can be added to salads or used as a garnish, and they have a mild almondy taste.

Toxicity: Stems, leaves & seeds are toxic, especially in the process of wilting. Toxins are usually present in too small a quantity to do any harm but very bitter seeds or fruit should not be eaten.

Growing: Grows primarily in the temperate biome.

Edible: Fruit

Description: Tree 15-32m tall

Native to: Found throughout the UK and Europe, except the far north.

Use: The fruits are edible but can be rather bitter. The fruit is edible both raw and cooked. As the main ancestor of the cultivated cherry, the sweet cherry is one of the two cherry species that supply most of the world's commercial cultivars of edible cherry (the other is the sour cherry Prunus cerasus, mainly used for cooking; a few other species have had a very small input). f your main reason for growing is to produce edible fruits then it may be better to opt for a cultivar.

Ecology: Fruit are loved by birds so this tree is a favorite if you want to encourage wildlife.

Toxicity: The hard stones in the center of all cherries are poisonous. However, the seeds have a protective coating that keeps the toxins from entering your system if you accidentally swallow one - intact pits just pass through your system and out the other end. Avoid crunching or crushing pits as you nosh on your cherries. The leaves and twigs are also poisonous.

Edible: Nuts

Description: Tree - 12m tall (80 years) Part of the understory in forests.  It is a lower canopy tree for forest gardens or orchards. It can be used in mixed native hedgerows.

Native to: The whole of Britain and Europe

Use: If growing hazel for edible nuts, hybrid types C. avellana x C. maxima can be good choices.

Ecology: Hazel provides shelter for ground-nesting birds, such as the nightingale, nightjar, yellowhammer, and willow warbler.

Edible: Fruit

Description: Deciduous perennial 2.5m tall. It grows wild in forests, but wild raspberry bushes are rare in the UK now.

Native to: Temperate Europe, and has naturalized in parts of the northern USA and Canada.

Use: Raspberries are full of vitamin C. They can be eaten straight from the bush, frozen, dried, or used in jam, wine, and cakes.

Ecology: A host plant of the Raspberry Moth, (Lampronia corticella).

Edible: Fruit 

Description: A scrambling thorny shrub 3m tall

Native to: North, Central & Eastern Europe.

Use: Ripe juicy blackberries have high vitamin C content and can be eaten raw or cooked. You can add them to pies, crumbles, wines, jams, jellies and vinegar. Blackberry bushes can prevent soil erosion on infertile, disturbed sites and the ancient Britons used thorny stems as a boundary or barrier in the way we use barbed wire.

Ecology: Bramble flowers are a food source for honey bees, bumblebees, and other wild animals. Leaves are eaten by certain caterpillars as well as some grazing mammals, especially deer. Ripe berries are eaten and their seeds are dispersed by several mammals such as foxes, badgers, and small birds. Bramble is also a habitat for some animals. 

Edible: Fruit 

Description: Tree

Native to: Found naturally across Europe

Use: Fruit can be made into crab apple jelly.

Ecology: The native crab apple produces a good crop and will attract wildlife to your garden. The leaves provide a source of food for caterpillars and the flowers attract insects. Birds and mammals eat the fruit, including blackbirds, thrushes, voles, foxes, and badgers. 

Growing: Domestic apples (Malus domestica): If you live at a low level anywhere in southeast, central, or eastern England and have normal soil conditions - choose Red Falstaff on the MM106 rootstock. If you live in the far southwest, or Wales, northern England, Northern Ireland, or southern Scotland - choose Red Windsor on the M26 rootstock.

Toxicity: All apple seeds are toxic. However, apple seeds have a protective coating that keeps the toxins from entering your system if you accidentally eat them. A common misconception is that crab apples are also toxic. This is not the case, as long as you don't eat the core and seeds, just like with bigger domesticated apples, they're perfectly edible. Eating apples were simply bred to produce larger, sweeter fruit.

Edible: Fruit and leaves

Description: Ground cover; A low-growing semi-evergreen perennial plant. They make a good component of a ground cover layer beneath or around other plants.

Native to: Europe 

Use: Woodland strawberry fruit is strongly flavored and is still collected and grown for domestic use and on a small scale commercially for the use of gourmets and as an ingredient for commercial jam, sauces, and liqueurs. Very young leaves can be used in salads. Evidence from archaeological excavations suggests that Fragaria vesca has been consumed by humans since the Stone Age. 

Ecology: Host plant of the grizzled skipper butterfly.

Edible: flowers and leaves.

Description:  A low, creeping, evergreen shrub/groundcover

Native to: Central, southern, and western Europe.

Use: Has a strong scent similar to Oregano. Used as a spice.

Ecology: Eggs of the Large blue butterfly (Maculinea arion) are laid on the young flower buds of Wild Thyme. The larvae burrow into the flower to feed. When the larvae are around 4 mm long they drop to the ground and wait to be found by red ants, who pick them up and place them below ground within the brood chamber. The larvae then feed on ant grubs.

Britain has three native species of thyme, the rare and very local Breckland thyme (Thymus serpyllum), large thyme (Thymus pulegioides) which is found in the southern half of Britain on alkaline soils and common wild thyme (Thymus polytrichus ssp brittanicus)

Edible: Flowers and leaves

Description: Evergreen perennial, Height: 20cm, Spread: 30cm

Native to: UK

Use: The flowers are edible, and can be added to sweet or savory salads. The leaves are also edible and rich in vitamins A and C.

Ecology: They range from woodland to grassland and are often found amongst hedgerows. Host plant to; High brown fritillary, small pearl-bordered fritillary, silver-washed fritillary, and the dark green fritillary.

Edible: Flowers

Description: Perennial (Height: 15cm, Spread: 30cm)

Native to: UK

Use: Flowers can be used to flavor oils and vinegars, or can be added to cakes or salads.

Toxicity: The roots and seeds of this plant are toxic and should not be eaten. 

Edible: Flowers

Description: Tree/shrub 15-24m tall

Use: The edible flowers can be used as garnishes and used to decorate salads or puddings.

Ecology: Host plant of the Queen of Spain fritillary butterfly. 

Toxicity: They contain saponins so should not be consumed in large quantities.