Prefers a sunny well-drained position and a limy soil or at least one that is not acid. Plants are likely to be resistant to maritime exposure.

Young leaves - raw or cooked as a potherb. Harvested in the spring before the plant flowers, they are tasty and nutritious. The leaves are added to salads, sandwiches, soups etc, they can be used in recipes that call for leaves of beet, plantain, sow thistle or amaranth. Young stems - raw. Root - chewed by children as a gum.

Seed - sow in situ as soon as the seed is ripe in the late summer. The seed can also be sown in situ in late spring. Germination usually takes place within 3 weeks.

Sandy dunes, grassland, arable land, waste areas, roadsides, railway embankments etc, usually near the sea.