Botanical Name: Tropaeolum majus
Herbal Actions: Antimicrobial • Urinary Tonic • Expectorant
Parts Used: Flowers • Leaves • Seeds
Uses: Culinary Herb • Edible Flowers • Microgreen • Pickled Seeds
Allies: Tomato • Calendula • Rosemary • Thyme
Nasturtium spills through the summer garden with round green leaves and brilliant flowers in shades of yellow, orange, and red. There is something almost playful about the way she grows—trailing over the edges of garden beds, climbing when given something to hold onto, and weaving herself between the vegetables growing nearby.
She doesn't seem particularly concerned with staying where she was planted. Given room, she wanders. She follows the openings she finds—sometimes climbing upward, sometimes spilling over an edge, sometimes appearing somewhere you didn't expect her to be.
Despite her common name, nasturtium is not actually a member of the botanical genus Nasturtium, which contains watercress. The garden nasturtium most of us recognize is Tropaeolum majus, a member of the Tropaeolaceae family and a native of South America.
Her confusing name comes from flavor rather than botanical relationship. Early European herbalists thought the plant's peppery taste resembled watercress, once known as Nasturtium officinale. The Latin nasus tortus has been interpreted as “twisted nose”—a reference to the nose-tingling pungency of these plants.
And nasturtium certainly has some bite.
The leaves and flowers are edible and have a fresh, peppery flavor reminiscent of watercress, mustard, or radish. The flowers are beautiful scattered over salads, while the young leaves can be added to sandwiches, chopped into savory dishes, or blended into pesto.
Even the young green seed pods are edible. They have traditionally been pickled in vinegar and used much like capers, giving the plant another old-fashioned name: “poor man's capers.”
That characteristic pepperiness tells us something about the plant's chemistry.
Nasturtium contains glucosinolates, plant compounds also found in vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, mustard, kale and horseradish. When the plant tissue is crushed or chewed, these compounds can be transformed into other substances, including isothiocyanates—the compounds responsible for some of the sharp flavor and aroma associated with these plants.
Nasturtium also has a history in traditional herbal medicine, particularly for supporting the respiratory and urinary systems. Preparations made from the fresh plant have traditionally been used during coughs, colds, and urinary complaints. Modern laboratory research has also explored the antimicrobial activity of compounds found within nasturtium, although traditional use and laboratory findings should not be confused with evidence that the plant can treat an infection in place of appropriate medical care.
Her flowers and leaves also contain vitamin C and colorful plant pigments, making nasturtium a lovely example of the place where food and herbalism overlap. Sometimes an herb doesn't need to become a tincture or capsule to become part of our relationship with plants. Sometimes we simply eat it.
Nasturtium is equally interesting outside the herbal medicine cabinet.
She has long been welcomed into vegetable gardens as a companion plant. Her abundant flowers provide nectar and pollen for visiting insects, and gardeners sometimes use nasturtium as a “trap crop,” allowing aphids and certain other pests to gather on her rather than on nearby vegetables. The reality of companion planting is more complex than the idea that one plant simply “protects” another, but growing a diversity of flowering plants can help create habitat for pollinators, predators, and other members of the garden ecosystem.
But perhaps what I love most about nasturtium is the way she grows.
She wanders.
She doesn't need a straight row or a clearly marked path. She reaches into the space available to her, finds something to climb when it appears, spills over an edge when it doesn't, and keeps growing.
She doesn't wander because she's lost.
Wandering is simply how she grows.
Reflection
There is so much we may never completely know.
We can question what we have been taught, wonder whether our perceptions tell us the whole story, search for explanations, and try to understand what is true. Curiosity can take us to interesting places. But when curiosity becomes a need for certainty, the searching itself can begin to create anxiety.
Maybe we don't have to resolve every question in order to feel steady.
Nasturtium doesn't need to know where the garden ends before she begins to grow. She moves into the space in front of her. She reaches, winds, climbs, and changes direction as she goes.
Perhaps we can do something similar.
We can stay curious about the things we don't understand while returning to what is here now—the ground beneath our feet, the people we love, the air moving through the trees, the food growing in the garden, the warmth of the sun on our skin.
There may always be things we cannot prove, explain, or fully understand.
We don't have to know everything that is real in order to experience what is real right now.
Perhaps that is enough ground beneath our feet to keep wandering.
A Note of Caution
Use only nasturtium that has been positively identified as an edible Tropaeolum species and has not been treated with pesticides or other chemicals unsuitable for edible plants.
Nasturtium is generally enjoyed in culinary amounts, but concentrated herbal preparations are different from using a few leaves or flowers as food. People who are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medications, or managing kidney, gastrointestinal, or other medical conditions should seek appropriate professional guidance before using concentrated nasturtium preparations medicinally.
Symptoms of a urinary tract or respiratory infection that are severe, persistent, or worsening should receive appropriate medical evaluation rather than relying on nasturtium as treatment.
The leaves and flowers are edible and have a fresh, peppery flavor reminiscent of watercress, mustard, or radish. The flowers are beautiful scattered over salads, while the young leaves can be added to sandwiches, chopped into savory dishes, or blended into pesto.