Sonchus oleraceus

Sonchus oleraceus L.

Sow thistle
Order	Asterales
Family	Asteraceae
Genus	Sonchus

2n = 32

Origin : temperate Eurasia,
mediterranean

wild


English	"sow thistle"
French	"laiteron, laiteron maraîcher"

Summary of uses

excellent wild salad
eaten cooked, as spinach
forage plant: rabbits, sheep, horses
medicinal

Description

red-stemmed individual
rosette
flower head
fruiting flower head

annual herbaceous plant, 30-80 cm tall, with an abundant white latex
erect stem, sparsely branched, smooth or slightly glandular, angular, hollow
glabrous alternate simple leaves, runcinate-pinnatifid or pennatipartite, deeply pinnately lobed, coarsely toothed, winged petiole and soft spines at early growth stages
stem leaves 'embracing, with acuminate auricles, spreading'
glabrous involucre, sometimes flaky at the base
yellow flower head with ligulate flowers
fruits: obovate-oblong brownish achenes, very rough, crested with a white pappus

The sow thistle has naturalized all over the world, including in tropical areas. It is a common garden weed.

Popular names

English	sow thistle, milk thistle, hare’s lettuce
French	laiteron ; lastron, brède lastron (La Réunion)
German	Gänsedistel
Dutch	melkdistel
Italian	grespino, crespigno, cicerbita, allattalepre
Spanish	cerraja, cardo lechuzo, lechecina
Catalan	lletsó
Portuguese	serralha, leitaruga ; serralha branca, serralha macia, leita ruga (PROTA)
Modern Greek	zokhi, tsokhos
Chinese	苦苣菜 - ku ju cai (Flora of China)
Hindi	दूधी - dudhi (Flowers of India)
Rajasthani	आकडियो - aakadio (Flowers of India)
Manipuri	খোমথোক্পী - khomthokpi (Flowers of India)
Nepalese	दुधे काँडा - dudhe Kaandaa, छोटे झार - chhote jhaar (Flowers of India)
Filipino	gagatang (igorot) (PROSEA)
Indonesian	tempuh wiyang, delgiyu (javanais), camawak (sundanais) (PROSEA)
Vietnamese	rau diếp dại, nhũ cúc, rau cúc sữa (PROSEA)

See the names of Flore populaire d'Eugène Rolland
See the etymology of Sonchus

Classification

Sonchus oleraceus L. (1753)

Cultivars

History

Sonkhos Dioscoride 315r
Sonchus laevis. Mattioli, 1554, Commentarii, 2, 257
Sturm, 1796. Deutschlands Flora, pl. 49
Flora Batava, 1814
Lindman, 1917-26. Bilder ur Nordens Flora

Uses

Read

La consommation de cette espèce (ar. : difef ; fr. = laiteron maraîcher) est rapportée en Tunisie par Lemordant et al. (1977), alors que Täckholm (1974) la signale comme utilisée en salade en Egypte. "Consumption of this species is reported in Tunisia by Lemordant et al"". (1977), while Täckholm (1974) reports it as used for salads in Egypt."

Le Floc'h, 1983, Ethnobotanique tunisienne, 272

Répandus partout dans les jardins et les cultures, les laiterons sont les plantes les plus estimées pour la nourriture des lapins. "Widespread around gardens and cultures, sow thisthles are the most estimated plants for feeding rabbits.

Audier, L’herbier du village.

Cultivated in the Philippines; mostly use is made of wild-growing plants. The young leaves and shoots are eaten raw, cooked or slightly steamed, also used for fodder and as a medicinal plant.

Mansfeld.

Harvested at the rosette stage, sow thistle is an excellent wild salad, used all over Mediterranean areas. Its soft spines are not troublesome. Nevertheless, this usage seems unknown further north in Europe. In Charente (France), for example, it is only harvested as rabbit food.
At a more advanced stage, it can still be eaten, cooked, as spinach, within pies or as soups.

References

Chauvet, Michel, 2018. Encyclopédie des plantes alimentaires. Paris, Belin. 880 p. (p. 150)
Marco, Claude ; Chauvet, Michel ; Molina, James ; Ubaud, Josiane et al., 2017. Les salades sauvages. L'ensalada champanela. 4e éd. revue et corr. Prades-le-Lez, Les Ecologistes de l'Euzière. 192 p. en ligne aux Ecologistes de l'Euzière