Sky-blue flowers that open around 6-7 am and always close shortly after noon, on stiff wiry stems by dry verges
Chicory - Cichorium intybus (BSBI).
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Chicory
Archaeophyte · flowers July to October · dry grassy waste ground, verges
Cichorium intybus — Asteraceae
Chicory is a tall, wiry roadside perennial with sky-blue flowers that open early in the morning and close shortly after noon. Its long taproot, dried, roasted and ground, is the classic coffee substitute or additive, and the same species gives radicchio and Belgian endive. In Britain it is an ancient introduction rather than a native.
How to spot them
- ▸Bright sky-blue, occasionally white or pink, dandelion-like heads 3-4 cm across, stalkless along stiff, wiry, branched stems
- ▸Flower heads open early in the morning and close by early afternoon
- ▸Lower leaves lobed like a dandelion's; upper leaves small and clasping the stem
- ▸Milky sap; a thick woody taproot; up to 1 m tall
- ▸Look-alikes: cornflower has a hard bract-cup and unlobed leaves; blue sow-thistles have spiny leaves
How to know it
Its dried, roasted, ground taproot is the classic additive to cheap coffee, popular where the real thing was scarce
Chicory - coffee substitute.
Radicchio and Belgian endive are both cultivated forms of this blue-flowered roadside plant
Chicory - Cichorium intybus var. foliosum.
Once thought native, it is now classed as an ancient introduction and is a relic of cultivation for medicine and coffee
Chicory - an archaeophyte according to the BSBI.
Its recovery in Britain since about 1992 stems from escapes from wildflower seed mixes and organic farm plantings
Chicory (BSBI).
Milky sap and leaves like a dandelion's, but with blue rather than yellow heads
Chicory - Asteraceae.
Quick-fire facts
- •BSBI: previously considered native, now recognised as an archaeophyte, probably a relic of medicinal cultivation and later coffee adulteration
- •Flowers July-October; heads open early (6-7 am) and close shortly after noon (BSBI)
- •The root contains inulin; roasted, it gives a bitter, coffee-like drink with no caffeine
- •Cultivated forms include radicchio, Belgian endive (witloof) and sugarloaf chicory
- •Declined markedly since the 1950s; modest recovery from about 1992 as it escapes from seed mixtures (BSBI)
- •Pollinated by bees and hoverflies; self-fertile
- •Found mainly on dry, calcareous soils in southern England and Wales
- •Traditional herbal use, like dandelion, was as a tonic, laxative and diuretic
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