Suomi
Svenska
Common Sowthistle
Sonchus oleraceus
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Alien species
Common Sowthistle is a one-year plant with soft yellow, dandelion-like flower heads and white milky sap. It usually grows 40–80 cm tall and is widespread around the world, often following people. You can see it in gardens, waste ground and other disturbed places.
Did you know?
- Breaking the plant releases white milky sap.
- Its tiny seeds drift far on fluffy parachutes.
About the species
Identification
One-year, often branched plant, 40–80 cm tall, with white milky sap. Often keeps a low circle of leaves at the base. Stems are leafy; upper leaves have no stalk and wrap partway around the stem. Leaves are soft, dull green and thin, bluish beneath, cut into narrow side parts with a much larger triangular tip; the edge is shallowly to clearly toothed but not very prickly. Many small, pale to bright yellow heads like little dandelions open in sun. Seeds are small, flat, brown, each with a white fluff. Compared with Field Sowthistle, the cuts are deeper and the edges less prickly. Flowers in Finland from July to September.
Plant group
Herbaceous plants
Habitat
yards and roadsides
Flowering
Jul–Sep
About the habitat
Grows on disturbed ground: gardens, vegetable plots, waste ground and soil heaps, and along edges of yards and paths. Favors warm, sandy, nutrient-rich soil. Most frequent in southern and southwestern Finland; scarcer northward, with scattered records even in northern Lapland.
Sources
Photo: Stephen James McWilliam, CC0 1.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/5938027405
Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39933
Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39933
Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaalivalvatti
