Cichorium intybus

Chicory

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Chicory is a naturalized perennial herb found in the California Floristic Province and northern Desert Mountains (Panamint Range) in disturbed places and roadsides at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to October, this plant produces distinctive blue flowers with pink or white variations, featuring striking dark blue anthers in delicate ligule formations. Growing from a deep woody taproot with erect stems 40 to 200 centimeters tall, it develops stout ascending branches and appears glabrous to short-bristly, especially near the base. Its proximal leaves are broadly oblong to elliptic, ranging from nearly entire to coarsely pinnately lobed. The small fruits are 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters long, topped with minimal pappus scales less than half a millimeter in length.

Habitat: Common. Roadsides, disturbed places

Bloom period: Apr-Oct

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, n DMtns (Panamint Range)

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.