Helminthotheca echioides

'Bristly Oxtongue'

(Syn. Picris echioides)

[Ex. Olbia, Sardinia, Italy]

Asteraceae: a stiff annual or biennial herb to 90 cm. Found on roadsides, hedgebanks, field margins and waste places, usually on stiff and calcareous soils. The leaves, branches and stem are all covered in thick bristles. Native to the Mediterranean Basin, but has become widely naturalised outside that range, including the British Isles.

USES:

The young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. they are rather bitter in flavour, tasting slightly better cooked.

It was traditionally used as an anthelminthic treatment.

GROWING INFORMATION:

Surface seeds in sow spring or autumn in a cold frame. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer. Succeeds in most soils but dislikes shade. Wild plants are an indicator of calcareous soils.

Attracts bees and butterflies.

HARVESTED: 2024*

 

APPROX. 50+ SEEDS