BOTANICAL NAME: Orychophragmus violaceus
FAMILY: Brassicaceae
This delightful cress, which grows in a leafy rosette much like rocket, was first brought to the attention of European botanists in 1743 when seed was sent back to Europe from China by the Jesuit missionary Pierre Incarville (1706–1757). In spite of Incarville’s enthusiasm for rare Asian plants, violet cress was completely overlooked for its culinary merits and was generally relegated to the ornamental collections of royal horticultural gardens in Europe. And there it stayed for almost 250 years.
The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus had a difficult time classifying it, and periodic disputes have broken out among botanists over its correct genus and species. In some texts it is called Moricanda sonchifolia. Part of the problem is that there are several distinct species and many, many varieties grown in the rural parts of western China, and no systematic attempt has been made to catalog all of them. In the West we cultivate only one, which is the violet flowering sort sent back by Incarville, and even this is not always easy to find.
English garden writer Joy Larkcom may be credited with bringing violet cress before a wider audience in the 1990s, for she recommended it in her Creative Vegetable Gardening and noted both its decorative and culinary qualities. The leaves and flowers may be eaten raw like rocket in salads, or the greens may be cooked like Chinese mustards in stir-fries and steamed vegetable mixtures. This is essentially a summer vegetable that takes over once the other spring greens have bolted. Seed should be planted broadcast; then the seedlings can be thinned to about six to seven inches apart. The plants pulled for thinning may go directly into the cook pot or salad. The plant flowers late in the season with stalks reaching approximately two feet in height, so the cress can be treated a lot like Coral Bells in decorative plantings. The intensely violet-pink flowers are perfect in salads, and when mixed with orange and yellow nasturtiums, the effect is gaudy and festive. Since the cress is tender, it does not winter well in areas colder than zone 8. As long as it does not freeze, it will thrive under cold frames or poly-tunnels. Of course, it can also be grown as a hothouse herb or even in a pot on a sunny windowsill.
The leaves and flowers may be eaten raw like rocket in salads, or the greens may be cooked like Chinese mustards in stir-fries and steamed vegetable mixtures.