Does anyone know what this flower is?

[joeywald]

Found this growing as a seedling in my compost and would love to know what it is!

Thanks in advance.

[rainbowgardener]

Pretty sure it is a balloon flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, though the flowers are more usually blue. There are some white flowered varieties, like Fuji white. It's a perennial and an amazingly beautiful flower to grow from your compost! My compost usually only sprouts tomatoes and the occasional squash.

[joeywald]

Thank you. That's brilliant! I have no idea where the seed came from.

[imafan26]

It is also edible. Balloon Flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, is very popular in Korea where it is cut into strips, seasoned with chili’s, vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce and eaten as a salad (which also tells one you can can get the root still alive in Korean markets, plant it, and get blossoms.) It is also used in soups, stews, dishes with vinegar, and is one of the ingredients in Toso, or sweet Japanese sake. Boiled young leaves are eaten in salads. Its blossoms are sweet in taste, have a bit of texture, and are used in salads, stuffed, candied or dipped in butter. The Balloon Flower is so called because before the petals open are fused at first making the blossom look like a balloon. Usually it is the blue ones that I have seen them eat.