Wild and Weedy Wednesday: Milk Thistle

A group of very tall weeds caught my eye earlier in the summer. When I looked up the name I found out it was possibly what we picked as children to put on a nettle sting or insect bite. We called it Milk Thistle. I wonder if any of my readers can verify this, as I know there are several wild plants called milk thistles, depending on where you live!

The botanical name is Lactuca serriola. You can see a single one below… about 2 metres tall.

Another common name for this European native is Prickly Lettuce (see the leaves on the one below) and Lactuca serriola is in fact the wild form of our common cultivated lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and is edible, but very bitter.

And yet some have quite smooth leaves, like in the next photo. This plant does indeed have a milky substance in the stems that has a pain-relieving and calming effect. In herbal medicine it is used both internally and externally, especially for curing warts!

The fleshy stems are tall and slender, with tiny yellow dandelion-like flowers at the top – less than 1 cm in diameter.

The seedheads resemble tiny dandelion seedheads too. They have been flowering for a few weeks and are now all going to seed.

The German name is Kompass-Lattich (Compass Lettuce), which refers to its tendency to grow with its leaves growing slightly upright in a north-south direction. They actually twist their leaves in that direction in order to avoid strong sunlight burning the foliage at midday. I can’t be sure they actually do grow like that, but am watching them!

They seem to grow mostly where the ground is quite damp and are quite common in fields, footpaths and at the edge of woodland. Another German name is Zaun-Lattich – Fence Lettuce – because it tends to grow at the boundaries of land where fences are erected. (See below!)

Have you ever come across this weed? Or perhaps you remember it from your childhood?

I still have a few weeds/wild flowers to share this summer – why not join me one week!

Have a great Wednesday, and Happy Weeding!