Oh what a lovely surprise!
I often let things go to seed for the benefit of the bees, birds and butterflies, or to collect seeds for the future. I've had luck with lettuces reemerging in the spring and this spring, I had something come up in the lettuce patch where I had sprinkled a Mesclun Mix the years before. Not sure if it was a weed or a reseeded plant, I let it go.
Stems quickly shot up, small white flower buds appeared but never seemed to open. This is how it looked for quite awhile, I was about to dig it out until one morning I came out and it was filled with beautiful cornflower blue flowers.
What in the world are these delightful flowers? The next day, the blue flowers were gone. The plant reverted back to the browning white buds. Interesting...
I didn't dig it up, curious as to what would happened next. A few days later, I witness a bush of stunning flowers, again.
Why was this plant hiding her charms?
Who is she?
Where did she come from?
And why does she hide?
The unique ruffled squared petals were the clue to identifying this mysterious plant from the dandelion family which goes by many names... Cichorium intybus
common chicory, cornflower, radicchio, Belgian, French curly or wild endive, blue daisy, blue dandelion, blue sailors, blue weed, bunk, coffeeweed, hendibeh, ragged sailors, succory, wild bachelor's buttons, witloof, and horseweed.
I love the folklore of plants...
In one legend telling of chicory's origin, a beautiful maiden refused the advances of the Sun and was turned into a chicory flower that had to stare at the Sun each day and always faded in the presence of its might. https://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weedguide/single_weed.php?id=25
Well, that explains her coy behavior.
These elusive flowers decorate road sides across America. In fact they are considered an invasive species. But for centuries Chicory has been used to make coffee, used as dye, feed cattle, and enjoyed as a salad green.
So I will enjoy her beauty for the time being and cry when it's time to mitigate the invasion.
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