"Lapsana communis is a ANNUAL growing to 0.9 m (3ft) by 0.3 m (1ft in)."
"It is hardy to zone (UK) 5 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from Jun to September, and the seeds ripen from Aug to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees, flies, lepidoptera, self.The plant is self-fertile."
"Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist soil. The plant can tolerates strong winds but not maritime exposure." [PFAF]
General: "Annual herb from a fibrous root; stems erect, branched above, solitary, exuding milky juice when broken, 0.3-1.5 m tall." [IFBC-E-flora]
Leaves: "Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves alternate, toothed or occasionally basally lobed, egg-shaped to almost round or rounded, thin, lower ones stalked, upper ones more or less unstalked, toothed, 2.5-10 cm long, 2-7 cm wide." [IFBC-E-flora]
Flowers: "Heads with strap-shaped flowers, several to many in an elongate to rounded inflorescence; involucres 4-8 mm tall; involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, the mostly 8 bracts evidently keeled at least toward the base; ray flowers yellow, usually about 13.Fruits; Achenes nerved, oblong, curved, tips rounded, 3-5 mm long, glabrous; pappus lacking." [IFBC-E-flora] A rare white flowered Nipplewort also exists. [arthurleej.com]
Habitat / Range: "Mesic to dry roadsides, fields and waste places in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common in S BC, especially on S Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland; introduced from Eurasia." [IFBC-E-flora] "Europe, western and central Asia, North Africa; introduced into North America, Australasia" [MPFT]
Status: Exotic [IFBC-E-flora]
Edible Uses
Leaves: "The leaves can be added to salads, cooked like spinach or added to soups and casseroles[9, 183]. They have a bitter or radish-like taste[183]. [PFAF]
Young Leaves & Shoots
Harvesting: "They are best harvested before the plant comes into flower.[9]" [PFAF]
Preparation: Raw or cooked.[2,5,17,100] [PFAF] Greens are edible [Turner&Kuhnlein] "The young leaves in the spring have the taste of radishes and are eaten at Constantinople as a salad. In some parts of England, the common people boil them as greens, but they have a bitter and not agreeable taste." [Sturtevant EPW] Greens used in minestrella soup, in northwest Tuscany, Italy. [Tardio MWEP] "Nipplewort is good eating despite its mild bitterness and decidedly hairy, therefore chewy, foliage. You can eat the leaves or upper stem portions raw, as is, or can prepare them however you prefer your greens. I am unaware of any nutritional studies carried out on this weed, but if it is at all similar in value to its relatives, we will benefit from ingesting it." [arthurleej.com]
Medicinal Uses
Medicinally it is impotent: no better than lettuce [arthurleej.com]
Externally:
Breasts: Once used in Prussia to heal ulcers on women's nipples and breasts. [arthurleej.com] "...Lapsana communis has had the special function in the Highlands of allaying the soreness of the nipples of nursing mothers..." [MPFT]
Topical: "...in Ireland Lapsana communis has apparently been recorded only as an application to cuts, bruises or burns (Wexford,68 Tipperary 69)" [MPFT]
Cultivation
"A fairly common garden weed, nipplewort will maintain itself in the garden so long as it is given some disturbed soil in which to self-sow. It is a fairly tolerant plant that succeeds in most soils, so long as they are not too acid, and dislikes heavy shade. It was at one time cultivated as a vegetable[17]." [PFAF]
Propagation
"Seed - sow in situ during the spring or as soon as it is ripe and only just cover the seed. Plants usually self sow when they are well-sited." [PFAF]
LAPSANA NIPPLEWORT
1 sp. (Greek: name used by Dioscorides) [Bogler 2006 FNANM 19:257] Unabridged references: [Pak & Bremer 1995 Taxon 44:13–21] "Unabridged note: Lapsana has been reduced to 1 sp., with several subspecies (Flora Europaea) not recognized here, due to the work of Pak & Bremer (1995 Taxon 44:13–21), who segregated 4 Asian species into Lapsanastrum. The highest-elevation collection on record is Lake Arrowhead, San Bernardino Mountains. This sp. is a weed, which can appear, at least temporarily, almost anywhere." [Jepson]
[arthurleej.com] Nipplewort by Arthur Lee Jacobson http://www.arthurleej.com/a-nipplewort.htmlOriginally published as the Seattle Tilth newsletter Weed of the Month in November 1991, along with an illustration drawn by Alice Dubiel.
