Reichardia picroides

‘French Scorzonera’

[Ex. West Rhodos, 4m., Rhodes, Greece]

Compositae: a glabrous perennial to 10-45cm. Found on cultivated soil and waste places. Yellow flowers appear from April to August, and the seeds ripen from June to September. The root is woody, elongated and enlarged which contains a sweet latex. The smooth glabrous basal leaves rosette develops, with a variable shape: elongated-obovate, oblanceolate, whole, or variously divided into patent, jagged and ruffled lobes. Native to the Mediterranean.

USES:

The leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. They have a pleasant agreeable flavour with a slight sweetness and little fibre, it makes a very acceptable lettuce substitute. On Crete Reichardia picroides is called galatsida (γαλατσίδα), they eat the leaves and stems, raw, boiled, cooked in steam, or browned with olive oil.

GROWING INFORMATION:

Surface sow seeds, warm well-drained soil, in a sunny site. Reichardia picroides, can tolerate extreme conditions, and to inhabit a wide variety of habitats, even growing on the very edge of the sea, where it is subjected to salt spray. It flowers throughout most of the year, except for the driest and coldest months. Full cold hardiness has not been tested by me yet.

HARVESTED: 2023

 

APPROX. 30 SEEDS