Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Chicory
If Early Yellowrocket or Rue Anemone can be called "harbingers of spring," then Chicory and another immigrant wildflower, Queen Anne's Lace, can be called "harbingers of summer." For we know that when these lilies start to first appear in late June in the Shenandoah Valley, the relatively mild days of early summer will soon be over, to be replaced by the sultry days of July and August.
But, like some other members of the Aster family, this is a wildflower that is able to flourish in the sweltering temperatures of August in dry, gravelly soils that will support little else. (Look below to see how these plants, pretty above ground, are equipped below ground to grow in what could be an unfriendly environment.)
For weeks on end, these distinctive light-blue blossoms are a common sight on the shoulders of rural roads in Virginia and throughout the more temperate areas of eastern North America.
Known as Succory and Blue Sailor in some locales, this naturalized immigrant plant came to North America from Europe.
It has along with Dames Rocket, Early Yellowrocket, Foxtail Grass, Moth Mullein, and Wild Sweet Pea found a new home in the alkaline soil of the Shenandoah Valley.
It is probably best known as Chicory, or some local variation on the same root name in the language spoken. (Some European examples: The French call it chicorée; in Spanish it is achicoria; the Italians call it chicorie ; Germans, Zichorie; and the Russians call it tsikorei—all of which derive from the Arabic name chicourey, and originally from the Greek kichore—below.)
Emerson called the flower "Succory to match the sky," a comparison I find right on target.
The distinctive sky-blue flowers are at their brightest when they open at sunrise, as to the left, but are spent, much of their beauty gone, by noon in Virginia.
Other wildflowers in the Gallery that have short-lived blossoms are Blue-eyed Grass, Scarlet Pimpernel, Virginia Spiderwort, and Asiatic Dayflower.
I think of the delicate coloring of the fresh early-morning blossoms as "Chicory-blue," because this shade is unique among wildflowers in my area. What a sublime effect, too, from the contrasting darker shading of the striped stamens.
The beauty of each Chicory-blue blossom is fleeting, illustrating what Jesus said, ...which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven...., yet so endowed by our Creator with such beauty that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these... So true!
On another trip I came across this Chicory that "marches to the tune of a different drummer," at least in the coloring of the blossoms.
The stem and leaves are just as green as all the others growing around it; only in the lack of coloration of its blossoms is this plant different.
But, if the leaves also lacked chlorophyll, they wouldn't produce the life-giving sugars, which, of course, is a fatal condition to the plant. So we won't see a totally white Chicory plant.
But a plant sporting albino flowers, I've learned, is rare; I was pleased to be able to capture its images to share with you in the Gallery.
Not only is the flower blossom without color, the pollen is also pure white. Compare these to the bluish pollen dusting the stamens of the colored blossoms above.
I think it is fair to say that white or blue, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these...
I've wondered how this plant can flourish in the hard gravel on the shoulder of a road.
Digging in a more friable part of my yard, I found the long taproot burrowed far down into
the soil.
Because it so hardy and can grow reliably in the poorest soil, Chicory
has been a valued pot herb in a number of cultures.
I was surprised to learn that this member of the Endive family has been cultivated as a dependable food crop for at least four-thousand years, across the two hemispheres: Chicory was reportedly gathered and enjoyed as a food by the ancient Egyptians.
The scientific as well as the common names reflect this history: The botanic prefix Cichorium is from the ancient Greek name for Endive or kichore.
The suffix also hearkens back to its ancient origins. The Egyptians customarily ate this plant in January and gave it their name for that month, Tybi , from which came intybus, meaning "of January."
With the Muslim conquest of the Near East, North Africa, and Spain, it was adopted as a mainstay of the common diet and given a name that was a local version of its Arabic name (as above). Thus, Cichorium intybus has been grown as a reliable pot herb across Europe for centuries.
Imported from Great Britain for this purpose by the first settlers as Root Chicory , it escaped colonial kitchen gardens and has ever since been a regular part of the North American landscape every summer.
But this is not an unfortunate occurrence, as in other cases. This plant has not made a pest of itself, as have Japanese Honeysuckle, Autumn Olive , and Rosa Multiflora; indeed in some quarters this ancient wildflower is still valued gastronomically as well as esthetically.
For, besides adorning our fence lines and roadsides in summer, some still enjoy cultivated Cichorium intybus in stews and salads, as it is around the world. And it continues to be used in some areas to mellow strong coffee. During WWI and WWII, as in medieval Europe, whenever coffee beans were in short supply, the ground root, which turns brown with roasting, gave those on the "home front" a reasonably palatable substitute for coffee.
A multifaceted and interesting lily, to say the least!
Go to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.