Sonchus oleraceus

Vegetable sow thistle ( Sonchus oleraceus )

The vegetable - sow-thistle ( Sonchus oleraceus ) is a species in the sunflower family ( Asteraceae). Other names are carbon - sow-thistle or sow thistle Common. This is a alteingebürgerte in Central Europe species which has been cultivated in the Middle Ages as a vegetable.

Features

The annual herbaceous plant reaches heights of growth between 30 and 100 cm. It has a hollow, fleshy, usually ästigen stems. The stem leaves are soft and blue-green, their shape is sinuate - dentate weichborstig pinnatisect and at the edge. At the base of the leaves carry horizontal projecting, stängelumgreifende, pointed ears.

The cups are 20 to 25 mm wide. The bare shell measures 10 to 15 mm and is not glandular. There are only ray florets present. The zygomorphen individual flowers are bright yellow. The fruit is querrunzelig and both sides dreirippig with pappus.

Bloom time is from June to October. Fruit ripening from June to October.

Occurrence

This type is known as cultural guides in the temperate zone of the world and spread almost all over Europe. As the site preferably the ruderal weed corridors along roadsides, Waste places, gardens and fields. It is found at altitudes of 1500 m above sea level.

Ecology

The vegetable sow thistle is a summer annual or winter annual half- rosette plant. It shall apply with their up to more than 1 meter depth encroaching roots as a pioneer plant. Pollination is by bees and hoverflies. In damp weather, the outer petals turn on the interior.

The fruits are rich in oil achenes. The plant is heterokarp that is, in response to changing external factors, it forms from different fruits. With fruits as Schirmchenflieger settling velocities of 29 cm / sec and thus flight distances of over 10 km are possible next carried water detention spread.

Use

The plant is mentioned by Dioscorides, Theophrastus and Antiphanes. The Greek folk medicine used the juice of the plant as an antidote for scorpion bites.

It is eaten raw as a component of various salads.

Plants of sowthistle picture in the Vienna Dioscorides ( 512 )