The former maison forestière at the Hoppinpunt Parking has been through some wrangles of late. A move to turn it into a brasserie fell on stony ground and the speculatively built patio had to be removed.
This created superb conditions for several plant species which thrive in disturbed ground and for the next few days I shall post about these colonisers.
Today we have Fat-hen, not the bird of the nursery rhyme but a plant long known and used by humans. The young leaves can be treated like spinach and the seeds of this quinoa-cousin are also edible.
Its botanical, French and Dutch names all reflect the pale, goose-foot shaped leaves, but the English went for another bird.
Those seeds have been waiting in the ground and, now the patio has gone, seized the opportunity to flourish.