﻿ Sonchus oleraceus, Kålmolke, Common sowthistle

Sonchus oleraceus, SE: Kålmolke, kålmjölktistel, DE: Gemüse-Gänsedistel,
NL: Gewone melkdistel, UK: Common sowthistle, Sow thistle

Scientific name:  Sonchus oleraceusL.
Synonym name:  Hieracium oleraceum L., Lactuca oleracea L.
Swedish name:  Kålmolke, kålmjölktistel, mjölktistel
German name:  Gemüse-Gänsedistel, Kohl-Gänsediste, Gewöhnliche Gänsedistel
Nederlandse naam:  Gewone melkdistel
English name:  Common sowthistle, Sow thistle, Smooth Sow Thistle, Annual Sow Thistle, Hare's Colwort, Hare's Thistle, Milky Tassel, Swinies
Plant Family:   Asteraceae, Sunflower family, Korgblommiga växter

Swedish Wildflowers

Life form:  Therophyte, Annual herb
Stems:  5 Angled dark green hollow stem (sometimes tinted with a reddish-purple tinge); milky juice; hairless.
Flowers:  Pale yellow small flowers (florets) in heads; lacks glandular hairs on the flower head bracts
Flowering Period:  June, July, August, September
Fruits:  Achene 2.5-4mm long and 1mm wide, brown, 3-ribbed on each face, wrinkled with narrow margins and compressed and obovoid in shape. The seeds are light with white parachutes of silky hairs (pappus), the silky hairs 5-8mm long.
Habitat:  Common in Southern and Central Sweden, but is rare in Northern Sweden; Fields, pastures, roadsides, gardens and edges of yards, vacant lots, construction sites, and waste places.

Wild Bloemen Zweden Natuur

Derivation of the botanical name:
Sonchus,Greek name for sow-thistle plants.
oleraceus, of the vegetable garden; herbs used in cooking.
Hieracium, Greek hierax, "a hawk." Pliny the Elder (23-79) believed that hawks fed on this plant to strengthen their eyesight and thus it became the Greek and Latin name for this and similar plants, the common name of which is hawkweed.
Lactuca, Latin lact, milk, referring to the milky sap.