Sow-thistles

  At this time of year, there are quite a few yellow dandelion-like flowers along the road verges and in the grass.  They are not always easy to identify.  One easy one that you can spot from the car is Perennial Sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis).  It is tall - up to 5 feet - and can be seen growing alongside the A9 near the kerbs.

Perennial Sow-thistles growing in a road verge

It has hairs sticking out from the stalk and under the flowers:

The hairs are a bit sticky as each one has a drop of liquid at the end. They are known as glandular hairs.

Glandular hairs on Perennial Sow-thistle

A few years ago I had only seen these plants by the Highland Wildlife Park and near Laggan.  With the building of the new A9 near the Park, the plants have now spread along the A9 and can also be seen in the verge by Pitmain Farm outside Kingussie.

Seed head

Their spread will have been though the fluffy wind blown seeds being carried along by the air disturbance from cars passing and seem to then grow quite well in the gravel drains alongside the kerbs.

There are two other Sow-thistles that are very common as they grow at the edges of paths and on waste ground. They both have smaller flowers that are a more lemony shade of yellow rather than the large golden flowers of the Perennial Sow-thistle.

This one is Smooth Sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) and is growing at the side of the path that goes from Newtonmore Main Street to Church Terrace.

Smooth Sow-thistle

Pointed leaf end of Smooth Sow-thistle

The leaves are quite thin and soft and not too prickly.

Note the pointed ends of the leaves as that helps distinguish it from Prickly Sow-thistle (Sonchus asper).  

 Prickly Sow-thistle is more common - lots of it grows alongside Newtonmore Primary School wall.

Prickly Sow-thistle

Prickly Sow-thistle has shinier, glossy and very prickly leaves. Also, the ends of the leaves near the stem are rounded.

Rounded ends to leaves of Prickly Sow-thistle

Rounded ends to leaves of Prickly Sow-thistle

When I lived in New Zealand, Smooth Sow-thistle was known as puha and was eaten. Apparently Captain Cook used this vegetable, boiled up to cure scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) affecting his crew.You can read more about it  here. I haven't tried it myself, but it can be cooked like spinach.

Links

The Herb Federation of New Zealand: puha