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Ontario Weeds: Chicory

Author: OMAFRA Staff
Creation Date: 01 June 2002
Last Reviewed: 01 November 2003

 

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Excerpt from Publication 505, Ontario Weeds, Order this publication

 

Table of Contents

  1. Name
  2. Other Names
  3. Family
  4. General Description
  5. Stems and Roots
  6. Flowers and Fruit
  7. Habitat
  8. Related Links

Name: Chicory, Cichorium intybus L.,

Other Names: CICIN, chicorée sauvage, Blue daisy, Blue sailors, Coffee-weed, Common chicory, Wild succory, chicorée.

Family: Composite or Aster Family (Compositae) 

General Description: Biennial or usually perennial, reproducing only by seed. It is distinguished in rosette and non-flowering stages by its coarse, rough-hairy leaves superficially resembling Dandelion leaves, and when in flower, by its large, showy, blue flowers in stalkless clusters along the branches.

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Photos and Pictures

Chicory.

Chicory. Flowers.


Chicory. Flower - close up.

Chicory. A Base of second-year plant.
Chicory. A Base of second-year plant.

B. Stem. C. Flowering branch.
B. Stem. C. Flowering branch.

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Stems & Roots: Stems erect, 30 - 150 cm (1 - 5 ft) high, usually with stiff spreading branches, hollow, rough-hairy especially on the lower part; first-year plants without a stem but forming a thick, vertical taproot and a large rosette of leaves; leaves of the basal rosette large. coarse, resembling Dandelion leaves but rough-hairy; stem leaves similar but smaller, alternate (1 per node), and bases of upper leaves clasping the stem.

Flowers & Fruit: Flower heads bright blue and very showy, stalkless or on short stalks in clusters along the branches, numerous; each head 3 - 4 cm (1¼ - 1¾ in.) across; only ray (strap-shaped) florets present; these blue, occasionally pinkish or whitish; seeds short, angled, top-shaped but lacking a tuft of hair at the tip; sticky white juice usually present in stems and leaves. Flowers from July to late autumn.

Habitat: Chicory occurs throughout Ontario in waste places, fence lines, roadsides and occasionally in gardens.

Related Links

... on general Weed topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control

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