Hops - Humulus lupulus - a phenomenally fast growing twining climber with three-lobed, toothed leaves and tough, wiry fibrous stems.

The stems are covered with tiny backward-pointing bristles which snag and catch on just about everything, helping the plant to maintain purchase on twigs and branches as it climbs.

The flowers, when they appear in late summer, are clusters of bell-like cones, composed of overlapping pale green scales. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants.

They were supposedly introduced to Britain by the Romans, but for use as a green vegetable (which is what I'm trying here). Only later, around the turn of the first millennium did they start finding a use as flavouring and preservative in beer.

The part of the plant of interest here is the tender growing tips of the shoots.

In spring, harvesting these will do the plant no harm at all - it'll just send out new side shoots from below the point the shoots are picked.

Lower down, the stems are tough and stringy - so the best way to pick them is just to find the lowest point at which the growing shoot separates easily when pulled.

I only picked a couple of handfuls of shoots - but it's enough to have a proper taste.

After rinsing them under the tap, I dropped them wet into a hot pan with some butter and a splash of white wine.

In about three or four minutes, they had turned dark, fresh green and wilted.

I served the shoots simply with a slice of buttered bread.

The taste is pleasant, but not remarkable.

The texture, however, makes this wild vegetable a bit tricky. The bristly nature of the stems persists through cooking (or at least, it did through the light cooking I gave them - and I didn't want them to discolour through overcooking). This makes them feel wooly in the mouth, and hard to swallow.