365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Monday, July 29, 2019
Cichorium Intybus, Chicory
Day 289: As non-native plants go, Chicory (Cichorium intybus) definitely has redeeming merits. Although well within the range of "pastel," its flowers are intensely blue, striking when erupting on its stiff, wiry stems. It grows in waste places, in vacant lots where hard-packed, dry soil supports little else but invasives. Its thick roots can be ground and used as a substitute for coffee, although when used as the sole ingredient, the resultant beverage is rather too bitter for most tastes. The roots are also used to flavour certain ales and stouts. Subspecies also provide edible buds and leaves. That said, as a non-native species, this cheerful, colourful flower is considered a pest in western Washington. May the gods of botany forgive me, I wouldn't mind it "pestering" the Barren Wasteland at all, but my attempts to transplant it have been futile.
Labels:
Chicory,
Cichorium intybus,
non-native species
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