NOXIOUS WEED
CO

Even alien weeds can have great beauty.

Everyone knows Chicory, perhaps not by name but certainly by sight.  Chicory is abundant in lower elevation fields, often growing so thickly that it imparts a blue cast to the field in mid-summer.  Flower heads are made up only of ray flowers that are sky blue to light lavender. Stems are thick and strong and 2 to 5 feet tall with few small leaves above a basal rosette of long narrow, often upright leaves.

Chicory has a long blooming period from mid-summer to fall.

"Cichorium" is, according to William A. Weber, an "alteration of the Arabian name" for Chicory and according to the online Botanical Dictionary, "intybus" is "derived from [the] Egyptian [word] "tybi", "January", the month that it was customarily eaten".  In 1753 Linnaeus named this species and this genus; the genus contains seven European species.

The first basal leaves of Chicory might be mistaken for Dandelion leaves, but the leaves quickly become much larger, vertical, and darker green. The long green wiry flower stalks also quickly distinguish Chicory from Dandelion.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Cichorium intybus