Edible and/or ornamental plants

When it comes to the edible or medicinal qualities of a plant, I notice time and again the limits to horticulturalists’ knowledge. Even those with decades of experience can have sizeable blind spots. I’ve been surprised by a peer who didn’t know the berries of Berberis darwinii, a common hedging plant, were edible. In shops you can find them sold as barberries - expensive "cooks’ ingredients" from Persia. I can also see them growing just outside my kerbside window in London :) Or consider a slightly more unusual shady ground cover plant: Pachyphragma macrophyllum - none of the top four results on Google mention its leaves are edible (and delicious). Number one on Google for this plant is the RHS, the irony is their website identifies toxic plants but none which are edible. It also highlights plants 'perfect for pollinators', typically those which are rich in nectar. Perhaps there should be 'perfect for people'?

Pachyphragma macrophyllum: ornamental and edible

Garden centres and nurseries play a role too. Look at a standard ornamental plant label, it will give you basic plant data: ultimate spread and height, light and moisture requirements and also whether it is toxic to people but I’ve yet to see one which indicates whether it is edible, which must also surely be a selling point. With 20 plants making up 90% of global agriculture there is a clear need to expand the number of plants which go into human diets - it’s time to cast aside the artificial distinction of 'ornamental’ within horticulture. Stephen Barstow has created the portmanteau 'edimental' to describe plants with aesthetic and culinary value. It's time for gardeners, garden designers and landscape architects to follow his lead and educate customers on the holistic value of plants.