Chicory

Leaves of Cichorium intybus are sometimes used as salad greens; the roasted roots are sometimes ground and used as an addition to (or adulterant of) coffee.

Perennials (sometimes flowering first year). Leaves: blades of basal 5–35+ × 1–8(–12+) cm; cauline similar, smaller, narrower, distal mostly linear. Peduncles mostly 0–2 mm, some narrowly clavate, 12–45(–85+) mm. Phyllaries: outer 5–6 lance-ovate to lanceolate, 4–7 mm, basally cartilaginous, distally herbaceous, inner 8+ lance-linear to linear, 6–12 mm, herbaceous, all usually with some gland-tipped hairs 0.5–0.8 mm on margins near bases or on abaxial faces toward tips. Cypselae 2–3 mm; pappi 0.01–0.2 mm. 2n = 18.