Nasturtium
Tropaeolum majus
Family · Tropaeolaceae · Harmless
The garden nasturtium, which in Madeira and the Azores escaped the yard and covers walls and banks all year. A round leaf with the stalk attached in the middle, and an orange flower with a spur behind.
Walls and rocks · Roadsides and waste ground · Town and roadside · Streams and ditches
Also known asgarden nasturtium, Indian cress
How to tell it
A creeping or climbing fleshy plant. Nearly circular blue-green leaves, the stalk attached at the centre of the blade and veins radiating like wheel spokes, with water running off in round beads. Five-petalled flowers in yellow, orange or red, with a long curved spur behind.
What it is confused with
Madeira moneywort
Sibthorpia peregrina
Both line levada walls and have round leaves with the stalk attached in the middle. Madeira moneywort is tiny, two to four centimetres, with yellow flowers a few millimetres across; nasturtium has palm-sized leaves and large orange spurred flowers. Neither is dangerous, and only nasturtium is eaten.
Open sheet →What it is for
Leaves, flowers and buds are eaten in salads, with a peppery watercress taste, and the pickled buds have stood in for capers. It is one of the few plants in this guide whose identification is easy and whose use is real and current. Gather away from roads and treated ground.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.