Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

CHICORY

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Cichorium intybus L.

Lyon County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 1-5 feet

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Stems:

Erect, branching.

Leaves:

Alternate, glabrous, sessile to short-stalked; principal leaves oblanceolate, 3 to 14 inches long, .8 to 2.8 inches wide, pinnately-lobed or toothed to nearly entire; uppermost leaves reduced to rigid, entire bracts.

Inflorescences:

Heads, to 1.6 inch across, numerous, short-stalked to sessile, 1-3 in upper leaf axils or some heads terminal on long branches; raceme-like.

Flowers:

Showy, bracts in 2 series, outer fewer than inner, about 1/2 as long, with whitish bases and green tips; florets all ligulate, fertile, corolla blue, lavender or rarely whitish; disk florets absent.

Fruits:

Achenes, glabrous, obscurely ridged, tipped with numerous minute scales, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Waste areas, disturbed sites and roadsides.

Distribution:

throughout Kansas, but more common in east 1/2.

Origin:

Native of the Mediterranean region; now naturalized.

Uses:

Chicory foliage has been used for salad greens and the root as a coffee substitute. Native Americans boiled the roots to make a wash for fever sores and steeped the roots to create a nerve tonic.

Comments:

The flower heads open in the early morning and close around noon on bright days, later on cloudy days. Chicory will give a bitter taste to milk when consumed by dairy cattle. It has a long taproot.

Chicory florets