Good King Henry

Nature and Human Nature
The Wild Side of Town
Bird-Watching
Harvest Anthem
Laura's Song
Butterfly Galliard / Falling Star
I Was The Child
Another World In The Night
Fox On The Rails /Dance Of The Starlings
Woodlands Of England
See This Lake, Son?
My Beautiful Bomb Pit
Comin' In On A Wing And A Prayer
Tomorrow's Too Late
Why Have You Stolen Our Earth?
Human Nature
Stand Quite Still
If There's No Other Way
The Rockery Rock
This Blessed Plot
Don't Clear That Corner Away
Art Nouveau
Brambles on a Hill
Our Stolen Season
Good King Henry
You Never Know Where We Have Been
Harvest Will Come
Just Human Nature
The Albion River Hymn: prelude
The Albion River Hymn
Sweet Themmes Run Softly
Three Men in a Boat
Down The Stream The Swans All Glide.
Swan-Upping Song
The Sheep Shearing Song
The Building of Our Bridge
Twickenham Ferry
Letters
Still On The Wild Side of Town
Rumour Hill
Life on the River
Horse Music
Yellow Taxi / New Jerusalem
Dragonfly
Lemady / Arise and Pick a Posy
Foxy Comes to Town
The Wind in The Willows
John Moore (1907-1967)
Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
Gilbert White (1720-1793)
Landlines

goodkinghenry.jpg

Perennial plant belonging to the goosefoot family, growing to 50 cm/1.6 ft, with triangular leaves which are mealy when young. Spikes of tiny greenish-yellow flowers appear above the leaves in midsummer. (Chenopodium bonus-henricus, family Chenopodiaceae.)

Good King Henry
Chenopodium bonus-henricus
Height up to 50cm

Introduced, upright perennial. Widely established and often common on disturbed arable land and wasteground. Lower leaves triangular; mealy when young but then green. Stems sometimes with red lines. Leafless flower spikes appear May­August.

The leaves and seeds of all members of this genus are more or less edible. However, many of the species in this genus contain saponins, though usually in quantities too small to do any harm. Although toxic, saponins are poorly absorbed by the body and most pass straight through without any problem. They are also broken down to a large extent in the cooking process. Saponins are found in many foods, such as some beans. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish. The plants also contain some oxalic acid, which in large quantities can lock up some of the nutrients in the food. However, even considering this, they are very nutritious vegetables in reasonable quantities. Cooking the plants will reduce their content of oxalic acid. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity should take especial caution if including this plant in their diet since it can aggravate their condition.

Range: Britain.
 
Habitat: Rich pastures, farmyards, roadsides.

The Wild Side of Life website
is ©2005/2006/2007/
2008/2009/2010/2011
albionchronicles
All Rights Reserved