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Asteraceae FAMILY

Arctium minus

Arctium minus

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
4/5

Safety & Hazards

Although no reports of toxicity have been seen for this plant, some caution is advised due to the following report for the closely related A. lappa[PFAF]. Care should be taken if harvesting the seed in any quantity since tiny hairs from the seeds can be inhaled and these are toxic[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitBiennial
Growth—

Succeeds on most soils, preferably moist[2]. Prefers a sunny position. Prefers partial shade according to another report[2]. A polymorphic species[3]. A good butterfly plant[4].

Propagation

Seed - best sown in situ in autumn. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Arctium+minus>

Pollinators

Bees, Lepidoptera, Self

References

  1. [1]Hemerocallis. Day Lilies. — Erhardt. W. · Batsford. · 1992 · ISBN 0-7134-7065-8 ↩︎A comprehensive book on the species with a short section on their uses.
  2. [2]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  3. [3]Flora of the British Isles. — Clapham, Tutin and Warburg. · Cambridge University Press · 1962 · ISBN - ↩︎A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.
  4. [4]Making a Wildlife Garden. — Baines. C. ↩︎Fairly good with lots of ideas about creating wildlife areas in the garden.
  5. [5]Food for Free. — Mabey. R. · Collins · 1974 · ISBN 0-00-219060-5 ↩︎Edible wild plants found in Britain. Fairly comprehensive, very few pictures and rather optimistic on the desirability of some of the plants.
  6. [6]Hamlyn Encyclopaedia of Plants. — Triska. Dr. · Hamlyn · 1975 · ISBN 0-600-33545-3 ↩︎Very interesting reading, giving some details of plant uses and quite a lot of folk-lore.
  7. [7]A Field Guide to N. American Edible Wild Plants. — Elias. T. and Dykeman. P. · Van Nostrand Reinhold · 1982 · ISBN 0442222009 ↩︎Very readable.
  8. [8]Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains. — Harrington. H. D. · University of New Mexico Press · 1967 · ISBN 0-8623-0343-9 ↩︎A superb book. Very readable, it gives the results of the authors experiments with native edible plants.
  9. [9]Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications · 1990 · ISBN 0-9628087-0-9 ↩︎Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.
  10. [10]Plants for Human Consumption. — Kunkel. G. · Koeltz Scientific Books · 1984 · ISBN 3874292169 ↩︎An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of Latin names with a brief list of edible parts.
  11. [11]Eat the Weeds. — Harris. B. C. · Pivot Health · 1973 · ISBN - ↩︎Interesting reading.
  12. [12]The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants — Chevallier. A. · Dorling Kindersley. London · 1996 · ISBN 9-780751-303148 ↩︎An excellent guide to over 500 of the more well known medicinal herbs from around the world.
  13. [13]A Modern Herbal. — Grieve. · Penguin · 1984 · ISBN 0-14-046-440-9 ↩︎Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.
  14. [14]Edible and Medicinal Plants. — Launert. E. · Hamlyn · 1981 · ISBN 0-600-37216-2 ↩︎Covers plants in Europe. a drawing of each plant, quite a bit of interesting information.
  15. [15]The Herb Book. — Lust. J. · Bantam books · 1983 · ISBN 0-553-23827-2 ↩︎Lots of information tightly crammed into a fairly small book.
  16. [16]A Barefoot Doctors Manual. — ? · Running Press; Philadelphica. · 1977 · ISBN 0-914294-92-X ↩︎A very readable herbal from China, combining some modern methods with traditional chinese methods.
  17. [17]The Dictionary of Modern Herbalism. — Mills. S. Y. ↩︎An excellent small herbal.
  18. [18]Handbook of Chinese Herbs and Formulas. — Yeung. Him-Che. · Institute of Chinese Medicine, Los Angeles · 1985 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent Chinese herbal giving information on over 500 species. Rather technical and probably best suited to the more accomplished user of herbs.
  19. [19]Herbs — Phillips. R. & Foy. N. · Pan Books Ltd. London. · 1990 · ISBN 0-330-30725-8 ↩︎Deals with all types of herbs including medicinal, culinary, scented and dye plants. Excellent photographs with quite good information on each plant.
  20. [20]Medicinal Plants of China — Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. · Reference Publications, Inc. · 1985 · ISBN 0-917256-20-4 ↩︎Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.
  21. [21]A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants. Eastern and Central N. America. — Foster. S. & Duke. J. A. · Houghton Mifflin Co. · 1990 · ISBN 0395467225 ↩︎A concise book dealing with almost 500 species. A line drawing of each plant is included plus colour photographs of about 100 species. Very good as a field guide, it only gives brief details about the plants medicinal properties.
  22. [22]Plant Fibres for Papermaking. — Bell. L. A. · Liliaceae Press · 1988 · ISBN - ↩︎A good practical section on how to make paper on a small scale plus details of about 75 species (quite a few of them tropical) that can be used.
  23. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎