Succeeds in sun or shade in most well-drained moist soils. Plants can be invasive. The young shoots of this plant are extremely attractive to slugs.

Seed - raw or cooked. It can be ground into a powder and used as a meal. A latex obtained from the plant is used as a chewing gum. After the latex has been squeezed from the plant it s allowed to stand overnight to harden into a white gum. The latex was sometimes mixed with clean clay.

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in late summer and overwintered outdoors. The seed requires a period of cold stratification if it is to germinate well. Prick out the seedlings when large enough to handle and grow them on in a cold frame for their first winter, planting out in late spring of the following year. Division in spring just before active growth begins. Plants can also be divided in the autumn.

Gravelly or sandy soil, mainly near streams. A common weed of cultivated land, usually found in shady or moist places.