Sonchus oleraceus

Last updated

Common sowthistle
Sonchus February 2008-1.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Sonchus
Species:
S. oleraceus
Binomial name
Sonchus oleraceus
L. 1753 not Wall. 1831
Synonyms [1]
Synonymy
  • Carduus amplexicaulisNoronha
  • Sonchus angustissimusHook.f.
  • Sonchus australisTrevir.
  • Sonchus ciliatusLam.
  • Sonchus fabraeSennen
  • Sonchus glaberGilib.
  • Sonchus gracilisPhil.
  • Sonchus gracilisSennen
  • Sonchus lacerusWilld.
  • Sonchus laevisVill.
  • Sonchus longifoliusTrevir.
  • Sonchus macrotusFenzl
  • Sonchus pallescensPančić
  • Sonchus parviflorusLej. ex Rchb.
  • Sonchus reversusE.Mey. ex DC.
  • Sonchus rivularisPhil.
  • Sonchus roseusBesser ex Spreng.
  • Sonchus royleanusDC.
  • Sonchus runcinatus(Fiori) Zenari
  • Sonchus schimperiA.Braun & Bouché
  • Sonchus schmidianusK.Koch
  • Sonchus spinulifoiusSennen
  • Sonchus subbipinnatifidus(Guss.) Zenari
  • Sonchus sundaicusBlume
  • Sonchus tenerrimusSchur 1866 not L. 1753
  • Sonchus umbelliferThunb.
  • Sonchus zacinthoidesDC.

Sonchus oleraceus is a species of flowering plant in the tribe Cichorieae of the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and Western Asia. It has many common names including common sowthistle, [2] sow thistle, [3] smooth sow thistle, annual sow thistle, hare's colwort, hare's thistle, milky tassel, milk thistle. [4] and soft thistle. [4]

Contents

Its specific epithet oleraceus means "vegetable/herbal". [5] [6] [lower-alpha 1] The common name 'sow thistle' refers to its attractiveness to pigs, and the similarity of the leaf to younger thistle plants. The common name 'hare's thistle' refers to its purported beneficial effects on hare and rabbits. [7]

Botanical characteristics

This annual plant has a hollow, upright stem up to 30 to 100 centimetres (12 to 39 in) high. [8] It prefers full sun, and can tolerate most soil conditions. The flowers are hermaphroditic, and common pollinators include bees and flies. [9] It spreads by seeds being carried by wind or water.

This plant is considered an invasive species in many parts of the world, where it is found mostly in disturbed areas. [10] [11] In Australia it is a common and widespread invasive species, with large infestations a serious problem in crops. [12]

Runcinate leaf Leaf of Sonchus oleraceus.png
Runcinate leaf
Flower of Sonchus oleraceus.jpg

Cuisine

Green salad with carrot, cucumber, onion, sowthistle leaves, and tomato slices Amanida de lletsons9.JPG
Green salad with carrot, cucumber, onion, sowthistle leaves, and tomato slices

Leaves are eaten as salad greens or cooked like spinach. This is one of the species used in Chinese cuisine as kŭcài (苦菜; lit. bitter vegetable).[ citation needed ] The younger leaves are less bitter and better to eat raw. Steaming can remove the bitterness of older leaves. [13] The younger roots are also edible and can suffice as a coffee substitute. [14]

Nutritive qualities

Nutritional analysis reveals 30 – 40 mg of vitamin C per 100g of plant, 1.2% protein, 0.3% fat, 2.4% carbohydrate. Leaf dry matter analysis per 100 g (likely to vary with growing conditions) shows: 45 g carbohydrate, 28 g protein, 22 g ash, 5.9 g fibre, 4.5 g fat; in all, providing 265 calories.

Minerals

Vitamins

Herbalism

Sonchus oleraceus has a variety of uses in herbalism. It also has been ascribed medicinal qualities similar to dandelion and succory. [7] The early Māori people of New Zealand are likely to have gathered it for food and medical use. [15]

Native Americans had many uses for this plant. Pima used its gum as a "cure for the opium habit," as a cathartic, and as a food, where the "{l}eaves and stems {were} rubbed between the palms of the hands and eaten raw" and sometimes "boiled." The Yaqui used the plant as a vegetable, where the "{t}ender, young leaves boiled in salted water with chile and eaten as greens." The Kamia (Kumeyaay) "boiled {the} leaves {and} used {it} for food as greens." The {Houma} used it as an abortifacient where an "{i}nfusion of {the} plant {was} taken to 'make tardy menstruation come;'" an antidiarrheal; for children that were teething; and as hog feed. [16]

The Samaritans eat the leafs of this bitter plant on the feast of passover. The bitter leafs are eaten together with Paschal lamb and unleavened bread, as dictated by the Bible (Exodus 12, 8): “ They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.” Thus, the Samaritans identify Sonchus oleraceus with the bitter herbs.

Related Research Articles

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

Plantago is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to 60 centimetres tall.

<i>Portulaca oleracea</i> Annual succulent in the family Portulacaceae

Portulaca oleracea is an annual succulent in the family Portulacaceae.

<i>Brassica oleracea</i> Species of plant

Brassica oleracea is a plant species from family Brassicaceae that includes many common cultivars used as vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, Savoy cabbage, kohlrabi, and gai lan.

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

Malva is a genus of herbaceous annual, biennial, and perennial plants in the family Malvaceae. It is one of several closely related genera in the family to bear the common English name mallow. The genus is widespread throughout the temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Europe.

<i>Sonchus</i> Genus of flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae

Sonchus is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae and are commonly known as sow thistles. Sowthistles are annual, biennial or perennial herbs, with or without rhizomes and a few are even woody.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leaf vegetable</span> Plant leaves eaten as a vegetable

Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, pot herbs, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad greens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assamese cuisine</span> Cuisine of Assam, India

Assamese cuisine is the cuisine of the Indian state of Assam. It is a style of cooking that is a confluence of cooking habits of the hills that favour fermentation and drying as forms of preservation and those from the plains that provide extremely wide variety of fresh vegetables and greens, and an abundance of fish and meat. Both are centred on the main ingredient — rice. It is a mixture of different indigenous styles with considerable regional variations and some external influences. The traditional way of cooking and the cuisine of Assam is very similar to South-East Asian countries such as Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and others. The cuisine is characterized by very little use of spices, little cooking over fire, and strong flavours due mainly to the use of endemic exotic fruits and vegetables that are either fresh, dried or fermented. Fish is widely used, and birds like duck, pigeon, squab, etc. are very popular, which are often paired with a main vegetable or ingredient; beef used to be eaten before British colonialism, and some continue to do so. Preparations are rarely elaborate. The practice of bhuna, the gentle frying of spices before the addition of the main ingredients so common in Indian cooking, is absent in the cuisine of Assam. The preferred oil for cooking is the pungent mustard oil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maror</span> Bitter herbs eaten during Passover

Maror are the bitter herbs eaten at the Passover Seder in keeping with the biblical commandment "with bitter herbs they shall eat it.". The Maror is one of the symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder plate.

<i>Sonchus asper</i> Species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae

Sonchus asper, the prickly sow-thistle, rough milk thistle, spiny sowthistle, sharp-fringed sow thistle, or spiny-leaved sow thistle, is a widespread flowering plant in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae.

<i>Lactuca serriola</i> Species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae

Lactuca serriola, also called prickly lettuce, milk thistle, compass plant, and scarole, is an annual or biennial plant in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. It has a slightly fetid odor and is commonly considered a weed of orchards, roadsides and field crops. It is the closest wild relative of cultivated lettuce.

<i>Tetragonia tetragonioides</i> Species of plant

Tetragonia tetragonioides, commonly called New Zealand spinach, Warrigal greens and other local names, is a flowering plant in the fig-marigold family (Aizoaceae). It is often cultivated as a leafy vegetable.

<i>Namul</i> Assortment of Korean vegetable dishes

Namul refers to either a variety of edible grass or leaves or seasoned herbal dishes made of them. Wild greens are called san-namul, and spring vegetables are called bom-namul. On the day of Daeboreum, the first full moon of the year, Koreans eat boreum-namul with five-grain rice. It is believed that boreum namuls eaten in winter help one to withstand the heat of the summer to come.

<i>Alternanthera sessilis</i> Species of flowering plant

Alternanthera sessilis is a flowering plant known by several common names, including sissoo spinach, Brazilian spinach, sessile joyweed, dwarf copperleaf. It is cultivated as a vegetable worldwide.

<i>Sonchus arvensis</i> Species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae

Sonchus arvensis, the field milk thistle, field sowthistle, perennial sow-thistle, corn sow thistle, dindle, gutweed, swine thistle, or tree sow thistle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. S. arvensis often occurs in annual crop fields and may cause substantial yield losses.

<i>Neptunia oleracea</i> Species of flowering plant

Neptunia oleracea, commonly known in English as water mimosa or sensitive neptunia, is pantropical nitrogen-fixing perennial legume. Genus and common name come from Neptune, god of the sea, in reference to the aquatic habit of some species in the genus.

<i>Roystonea oleracea</i> Species of palm

Roystonea oleracea, sometimes known as the Caribbean royal palm, palmiste, imperial palm or cabbage palm, is a species of palm which is native to the Lesser Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago. It is also reportedly naturalized in Guyana and on the islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian Ocean.

<i>Sonchus tenerrimus</i> Species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae

Sonchus tenerrimus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name slender sowthistle. It is native to the Mediterranean region of southern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. It has been found as well in several other locations around the world, historically in association with ship ballast in coastal regions. It has become naturalized in a few places, such as California in the United States and Baja California in Mexico.

<i>Acmella oleracea</i> Species of flowering plant

Acmella oleracea is a species of flowering herb in the family Asteraceae. Common names include toothache plant, Szechuan buttons, paracress, jambu, buzz buttons, tingflowers and electric daisy. Its native distribution is unclear, but it is likely derived from a Brazilian Acmella species. A small, erect plant, it grows quickly and bears gold and red inflorescences. It is frost-sensitive but perennial in warmer climates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring greens</span>

Spring greens, or spring vegetables, are the edible young leaves or new plant growth of a large number of plants that are most fit for consumption when their newest growth happens in the spring. Many leaf vegetables become less edible as they age and bitter, or potentially even toxic, compounds start to form. Harvesting of spring vegetables is common across Native American cultures.

<i>Sonchus kirkii</i> Herb in the Asteraceae family

Sonchus kirkii, also known as New Zealand sow thistle, or shore puha is a herb in the Asteraceae family. It grows in coastal New Zealand.

References

Footnotes

  1. For the generic name's etymology, see Sonchus .

Citations

  1. The Plant List, Sonchus oleraceus (L.) L.
  2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Sonchus oleraceus". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  3. Sonchus oleraceus at Plants For A Future
  4. 1 2 International Environmental Weed Foundation , retrieved 24 December 2015
  5. Parker, Peter (2018). A Little Book of Latin for Gardeners. Little Brown Book Group. p. 328. ISBN   978-1-4087-0615-2. oleraceus, holeraceus = relating to vegetables or kitchen garden
  6. Whitney, William Dwight (1899). The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia. Century Co. p. 2856. L.holeraceus, prop.oleraceus, herb-like, holus, prop.olus (oler-), herbs, vegetables
  7. 1 2 "A Modern Herbal | Sow-Thistles". Botanical.com. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  8. Tanaka, Yoshitaka; Van Ke, Nguyen (2007). Edible Wild Plants of Vietnam: The Bountiful Garden. Thailand: Orchid Press. p. 52. ISBN   978-9745240896.
  9. "Sonchus oleraceus Sow Thistle, Common sowthistle PFAF Plant Database".
  10. Sonchus oleraceus Archived 2007-04-28 at the Wayback Machine at Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants Archived 2007-03-25 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Sonchus oleraceus L., Asteraceae, Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER)
  12. "Common sowthistle Sonchus oleraceus". Weeds Australia. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  13. Nyerges, Christopher (2016). Foraging Wild Edible Plants of North America: More than 150 Delicious Recipes Using Nature's Edibles. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 169. ISBN   978-1-4930-1499-6.
  14. Nyerges, Christopher (2017). Foraging Washington: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods. Guilford, CT: Falcon Guides. ISBN   978-1-4930-2534-3. OCLC   965922681.
  15. Cambie, Richard C; Ferguson, Lynnette R (2003). "Potential functional foods in the traditional Maori diet". Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis. 523–524: 109–117. doi:10.1016/S0027-5107(02)00344-5. ISSN   0027-5107. PMID   12628508.
  16. "BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database".