SPECIES DESCRIPTION
SONCHUS OLERACEUS
Family and Genus:- See- COMPOSITAE
Common Names:- Annual sowthistle, Common milk-thistle, Common
sowthistle, Smooth Sow-thistle.
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Sonchus (Gr) Thistle.
Oleraceus (L) Of cultivation, aromatic, vegetable.
General description:- Annual or biennial; herbaceous.
Stem:-
1) 10-140 cm, simple or branched, often glandular-hairy in the upper part and
sometimes white-tomentose at the base of the capitula and on the upper part of
the peduncles.
Leaves:-
1) Glabrous.
a) lower, undivided, with narrowly winged petiole.
b) upper, larger, pinnatifid to pinnatisect, lyrate or sometimes runcinate with the
lobes not or only slightly constricted at the base, with acute auricles.
Flowers:-
1) With only ray-florets, joined together in gilded yellow capitula from 20-25mm
diam.
2) Involucre, rounded in its lower part, with at most 35 hairless bracts, acute at the
top, generally laid out on 3 rows.
3) Ligules, about as long as corolla-tube.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes, 2·5-3·75 x 0·75-1 mm, oblanceolate, rugose between the ribs, weakly
compressed.
2) Pappus 5-8 mm, more or less persistent with minutely toothed simple hairs.
Key features:-
1) Leaf-lobes, (if present) not constricted at the base; terminal lobe usually much
larger than the lateral lobes.
2) Ligules, about as long as corolla-tube.
3) Achenes, gradually narrowed at base.
Habitat:- Cultivated fields, gardens, coastal habitats, wasteground. 0-900 m.
Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread
and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Apr-June and occasionally at other times.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
