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Asteraceae FAMILY

Lapsana communis

Lapsana communis

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual
Growth—

A fairly common garden weed, nipplewort will maintain itself in the garden so long as it is given some disturbed soil in which to self-sow. It is a fairly tolerant plant that succeeds in most soils, so long as they are not too acid, and dislikes heavy shade. It was at one time cultivated as a vegetable[1].

Propagation

Seed - sow in situ during the spring or as soon as it is ripe and only just cover the seed. Plants usually self sow when they are well-sited. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Lapsana+communis>

Pollinators

Bees, Flies, Lepidoptera, Self

References

  1. [1]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.
  2. [2]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.
  3. [3]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.
  4. [4]Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. — Hedrick. U. P. · Dover Publications · 1972 · ISBN 0-486-20459-6 ↩︎Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
  5. [5]Flowers of Europe - A Field Guide. — Polunin. O. · Oxford University Press · 1969 · ISBN 0192176218 ↩︎An excellent and well illustrated pocket guide for those with very large pockets. Also gives some details on plant uses.
  6. [6]Mediterranean Wild Edible Plants - Ethnobotany and Food Composition Tables — María de Cortes Sánchez-Mata; Javier Tardío (Editors) · Springer; New York · 2016 · ISBN 978-1-4939-3327-3 ↩︎
  7. [7]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.
  8. [8]Ethnobotany of the Mountain Regions of Far Eastern Europe: Ural, Northern Caucasus, Turkey, and Iran — Bussmann R.W. et al · Springer Nature Switzerland AG. · 2020 · https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28940-9 · ISBN 978-3-030-28939-3 ↩︎