Jul 6, 2010 By Herald Standard Staff 3 min read

The blue flowers of the chicory plant, Cichorium intybus, are a pleasure to see this time of year. I see them along roadsides, in pastures and fields. The cornflower blue of the flower petals is particularly attractive, I think. The flowers are in such abundance, you might think the plants are a native species. They are not. Some deem chicory a weed, but it is a plant that was cultivated here in the United States for some time, and it continues to be cultivated in Europe. A native of the Mediterranean region, chicory is grown in many parts of the world as a food, and humans have dined on it for thousands of years.

You may have unknowingly eaten chicory in a mesclun salad. Belgian endive and radicchio are chicory, too.

Through cultivation and breeding, there are several varieties of chicory that are less bitter than the one you see along our roadsides, but even those “wild” ones are edible.

At some point, chicory escaped American cultivation and it has naturalized across North America. It likes well-drained soil in full sun.

A composite related to daisies, chicory is in some ways similar to the common dandelion (Taraxacun officinale). At ground level, chicory has a basal rosette of leaves which are used as salad greens, much like the leaves of dandelion. The basal leaves have toothed edges, as does the dandelion; however, leaves on the flower stems of the chicory plant are small or mostly absent.

A perennial, chicory starts easily from seed and forms a deep taproot, which makes it difficult to transplant or pull out, as the case may be. From the root – when sliced, dried and roasted – a coffee-like beverage can be made. In fact, during World War II, when real coffee was hard to come by in the U.S., chicory was used to produce a coffee substitute and also used as an additive to stretch the coffee available. In Europe, this chicory beverage is not unusual to find, and it is popular in Louisiana, as well. Unlike coffee, chicory is caffeine-free. My husband, Lloyd, tried it several years ago and remarked it was rather bitter tasting.

Chicory flowers are primarily blue, though I have read (not seen) that they can be white, pink or purple, as well. The 1-to-1 1/2-inch wide blossoms appear on tall, straggly-looking, hollow stems that are mostly devoid of leaves. But the flower stalks can be several feet tall. Flowers may be single or in small clusters. Something I learned recently is that the flowers open in the morning and close up as the sun becomes more intense around noon.

And each flower blooms for one day only.

Roots, stems and other parts of the chicory plant exude a white, milky sap if cut, which may cause contact dermatitis in some individuals. However, though chicory sap is bitter, it is not poisonous.

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Susan Brimo-Cox gardens, observes nature and writes in Ohiopyle. Readers can send questions or comments to her at naturesgarden@brimo-cox.com.

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