Arctium minus

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Arctium minus
Arctium minus corimbo.jpg
Flower heads (capitula)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Arctium
Species:
A. minus
Binomial name
Arctium minus
(Hill) Bernh. 1800 not Schkuhr 1803
Synonyms [1]
Synonymy
  • Arcion minusBubani
  • Arctium chabertiiBriq. & Cavill.
  • Arctium conglomeratumSchur ex Nyman
  • Arctium euminusSyme
  • Arctium lappaKalm 1765 not L. 1753
  • Arctium montanumSteud.
  • Arctium pubensBab.
  • Bardana minorHill
  • Lappa minorHill
  • Lappa pubens(Bab.) Boreau

Arctium minus, commonly known as lesser burdock, [2] little burdock, louse-bur, common burdock, [3] button-bur, cuckoo-button, [3] or wild rhubarb, [4] is a biennial plant. This plant is native to Europe, [5] but has become introduced elsewhere such as Australia, North and South America, and other places. [6] [7] [8] [9]

Contents

Lesser burdock produces purple flowers in its second year of growth, from July to October. Outer bracts end in hooks that are like hook-and-loop. After the flower head dries, the hooked bracts will attach to humans and animals to transport the entire seedhead. [10]

Characteristics

Arctium minus, Batiscan River banks, Quebec, Canada Arctium minus 010.jpg
Arctium minus, Batiscan River banks, Quebec, Canada

Arctium minus can grow up to 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) tall [11] and form multiple branches. It is large and bushy. Flowers are prickly and pink to lavender in color. Flower heads are about 2 cm (0.79 in) wide. [11] The plant flowers from July through October. The flowers resemble and can be easily mistaken for thistles, but burdock can be distinguished by its extremely large (up to 50 cm) leaves and its hooked bracts. Leaves are long and ovate. Lower leaves are heart-shaped and have very wavy margins. Leaves are dark green above and woolly below. It grows an extremely deep taproot, up to 30 cm (12 in) into the ground. [12] [13]

Uses

The leafstalks (a year old or younger) and flower stalks can be eaten raw or cooked. The roots are edible boiled with a change of water, [11] though become too woody to eat in plants over a year old. [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>Arctium</i> Genus of flowering plants

Arctium is a genus of biennial plants commonly known as burdock, family Asteraceae. Native to Europe and Asia, several species have been widely introduced worldwide. Burdock's clinging properties, in addition to providing an excellent mechanism for seed dispersal, led to the invention of the hook and loop fastener.

<i>Daucus carota</i> Species of flowering plant

Daucus carota, whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Old World and was naturalized in the New World.

<i>Allium vineale</i> Species of flowering plant

Allium vineale is a perennial, bulb-forming species of wild onion, native to Europe, northwestern Africa and the Middle East. The species was introduced in Australia and North America, where it has become a noxious weed.

<i>Hypochaeris radicata</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae

Hypochaeris radicata – also known as catsear, flatweed, cat's-ear, hairy cat's ear, or false dandelion – is a perennial, low-lying edible herb often found in lawns. The plant is native to Europe, but has also been introduced to the Americas, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, where it can be an invasive weed. It is listed as a noxious weed in the northwestern U.S. state of Washington.

<i>Lapsana communis</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae

Lapsana communis, the common nipplewort, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and southwestern Asia. and widely naturalized in other regions including North America.

<i>Cornus canadensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Cornus canadensis is a species of flowering plant in the dogwood family Cornaceae, native to eastern Asia and North America. Common names include Canadian dwarf cornel, Canadian bunchberry, quatre-temps, crackerberry, and creeping dogwood. Unlike its relatives, which are for the most part substantial trees and shrubs, C. canadensis is a creeping, rhizomatous perennial growing to about 20 centimetres tall.

<i>Sagittaria latifolia</i> Species of aquatic plant

Sagittaria latifolia is a plant found in shallow wetlands and is sometimes known as broadleaf arrowhead, duck-potato, Indian potato, katniss, or wapato. This plant produces edible tubers that have traditionally been extensively used by Native Americans.

<i>Arctium lappa</i> Species of flowering plant

Arctium lappa, commonly called greater burdock, gobō (牛蒡/ゴボウ), edible burdock, lappa, beggar's buttons, thorny burr, or happy major is a Eurasian species of plants in the family Asteraceae, cultivated in gardens for its root used as a vegetable. It has become an invasive weed of high-nitrogen soils in North America, Australia, and other regions.

<i>Tragopogon pratensis</i> Species of plant

Tragopogon pratensis is a biennial plant in the family Asteraceae, distributed across Europe and North America, commonly growing in fields and on roadsides. It is found in North America from southern Ontario to Massachusetts; most of England; on the eastern and southern edges of Scotland; and central Ireland but not the coastal edges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bur</span> Seed or dry fruit or infructescence that has hooks or teeth

A bur is a seed or dry fruit or infructescence that has hooks or teeth. The main function of the bur is to spread the seeds of the bur plant, often through epizoochory. The hooks of the bur are used to latch onto fur or fabric, enabling the bur – which contain seeds – to be transported to another location for dispersal. Another use for the spines and hooks are physical protection against herbivores. Their ability to stick to animals and fabrics has shaped their reputation as bothersome.

<i>Xanthium strumarium</i> Species of flowering plant

Xanthium strumarium is a species of annual plants of the family Asteraceae. Some sources claim it originates in southern Europe and Asia, but has been extensively naturalized elsewhere. Others, such as the Flora of China and Flora of North America, state it originates in the Americas but was an early introduction to Eurasia.

<i>Lonicera involucrata</i> Species of honeysuckle

Lonicera involucrata, the bearberry honeysuckle, bracted honeysuckle, twinberry honeysuckle, Californian Honeysuckle, twin-berry, or black twinberry, is a species of honeysuckle native to northern and western North America.

<i>Oemleria</i> Species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae

Oemleria cerasiformis, a shrub commonly known as osoberry or Indian plum, is the sole species in genus Oemleria.

<i>Anaphalis margaritacea</i> Species of flowering plant

Anaphalis margaritacea, commonly known as the western pearly everlasting or pearly everlasting, is an Asian and North American species of flowering perennial plant in the family Asteraceae.

<i>Ambrosia acanthicarpa</i> Species of flowering plant

Ambrosia acanthicarpa is a North American species of bristly annual plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus Ambrosia are called ragweeds. The species has common names including flatspine bur ragweed, Hooker's bur-ragweed, annual burrweed, annual bur-sage, and western sand-bur. The plant is common across much of the western United States and in the Prairie Provinces of Canada.

<i>Corylus americana</i> Species of flowering plant

Corylus americana, the American hazelnut or American hazel, is a species of deciduous shrub in the genus Corylus, native to the eastern and central United States and extreme southern parts of eastern and central Canada.

<i>Galium aparine</i> Species of flowering plant

Galium aparine, with common names including cleavers, clivers, catchweed "robin-run-the-hedge", and sticky willy among others, is an annual, herbaceous plant of the family Rubiaceae.

<i>Arctium tomentosum</i> Species of flowering plant

Arctium tomentosum, commonly known as the woolly burdock or downy burdock, is a species of burdock belonging to the family Asteraceae. The species was described by Philip Miller in 1768.

In botanical terminology, a phyllary, also known an involucral bract or tegule, is a single bract of the involucre of a composite flower. The involucre is the grouping of bracts together. Phyllaries are reduced leaf-like structures that form one or more whorls immediately below a flower head.

References

  1. The Plant List Arctium minus (Hill) Bernh.
  2. BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  3. 1 2 "Arctium minus". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  4. USDA PLANTS information
  5. Altervista Flora Italiana, Lappola bardana minore Arctium minus (Hill) Bernh. includes photos plus European distribution map
  6. Flora of North America, Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 170 Common or lesser burdock, petite bardane, cibourroche, chou bourache, bourrier, Arctium minus (Hill) Bernhardi, Syst. Verz. 154. 1800.
  7. Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  8. Marticorena, C. & M. Quezada. 1985. Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Chile. Gayana, Botánica 42: 1–157
  9. Atlas of Living Australia
  10. Rose, Francis (1981). The Wild Flower Key. Frederick Warne & Co. pp. 386–387. ISBN   0-7232-2419-6.
  11. 1 2 3 Elias, Thomas S.; Dykeman, Peter A. (2009) [1982]. Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods. New York: Sterling. p. 112. ISBN   978-1-4027-6715-9. OCLC   244766414.
  12. John W. Thieret, William A. Niering, and Nancy C. Olmstead. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region, Revised edition. Chanticleer Press, Inc, 2001. ISBN   0-375-40232-2
  13. Richard H. Uva, Joseph C. Neal, and Joseph M. Ditomaso. Weeds of the Northeast. Cornell University Press, 1997. ISBN   0-8014-8334-4
  14. Benoliel, Doug (2011). Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Rev. and updated ed.). Seattle, WA: Skipstone. p. 55. ISBN   978-1-59485-366-1. OCLC   668195076.