THE CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF THE TITLE COMPOUND (SYSTEMATIC NAME: methyl 3,4,5-trihydroxy-benzoate), C(8)H(8)O(5), is composed of essentially planar mol-ecules [maximum departures from the mean carbon and oxygen skeleton plane of 0.0348 (10) Å]. The H atoms of the three hydroxyl groups, which function as hydrogen-bond donors and acceptors simultaneously, are oriented in the same direction around the aromatic ring. In addition to two intra-molecular hydrogen bonds, each mol-ecule is hydrogen bonded to six others, creating a three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network.