Asteraceae FAMILY

Picris echioides

Edibility

2/5

Medicinal

0/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual/Biennial

Growth—

Succeeds in most soils^[1]. Dislikes shade. Wild plants are an indicator of calcareous soils^[1]. Seed is often produced apomictically^[2]. Any seedlings from this seed will be genetically identical to the parent plant.

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in situ, only just covering the seed. Germination should take place quite quickly. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Picris+echioides>

Pollinators

Bees, Flies, apomictic

References

[1]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.
[2]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.
[3]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.
[4]A Modern Herbal. — Grieve. · Penguin · 1984 · ISBN 0-14-046-440-9 ↩︎Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.
[5]Tanaka's Cyclopedia of Edible Plants of the World. — Tanaka. T. & Nakao S. · Keigaku Publishing; Tokyo · 1976 · ISBN - ↩︎The most comprehensive list of edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.
[6]Native Edible Plants of New Zealand. — Crowe. A. · Hodder and Stoughton · 1990 · ISBN 0-340-508302 ↩︎A very well written and illustrated book based on the authors own experiments with living on a native diet.
[PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎