SONCHUS OLERACEUS

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Annual sowthistle, Common milk-thistle, Common

sowthistle, Smooth Sow-thistle.

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Sonchus (Gr) Thistle.

Oleraceus (L) Of cultivation, aromatic, vegetable.

General description:- Annual or biennial; herbaceous.

Stem:-

1) 10-140 cm, simple or branched, often glandular-hairy in the upper part and

sometimes white-tomentose at the base of the capitula and on theupper part of

the peduncles.

Leaves:-

1) Glabrous.

2) Lower undivided, with narrowly winged petiole.

3) Upper larger, pinnatifid to pinnatisect, lyrate or sometimes runcinate with the

lobes not or only slightly constricted at the base, with acute auricles.

Flowers:-

1) With only ray-florets, joined together in gilded yellow capitula from 20-25mm

diam.

2) Involucre rounded in its lower part, with at most 35 hairless bracts, acute at the

top, generally laid out on 3 rows.

3) Ligules about as long as corolla-tube.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 2·5-3·75 x 0·75-1 mm, oblanceolate, rugose between the ribs, weakly

compressed.

2) Pappus 5-8 mm, more or less persistent with minutely toothed simple hairs.

Key features:-

1) Leaf-lobes (if present) not constricted at the base; terminal lobe usually much

larger than the lateral lobes.

2) Ligules about as long as corolla-tube.

3) Achenes gradually narrowed at base.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated fields, gardens, coastal habitats, wasteground. 0-900 m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread

and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Apr-June and occasionally at other times.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton