Sium sisarum, commonly known as skirret,[1] is a perennial plant of the family Apiaceae sometimes grown as a root vegetable.

It is presumed to be the siser mentioned by Pliny the Elder as a favourite of the Emperor Tiberius,[4] though this may have also been a reference to a parsnip or carrot.

[6] Maud Grieve in A Modern Herbal mentions that it has been cultivated in Great Britain since 1548 and is supposed to be a useful diet in chest complaints.

[3] The seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper said about the plant:[7] John Gerard's Herball or General Historie of Plantes of 1633 describes skirret thus:[8] When boiled and served with butter, the roots form a dish, declared by the seventeenth-century agriculturist John Worlidge in 1682, to be "the sweetest, whitest, and most pleasant of roots".

Skirret roots can be stewed, baked, roasted, fried in batter as fritter, or creamed, and also be grated and used raw in salads.