Chicory (Cichorium intybus) Wild Edible Food

Chicory is a plant that grows like a weed, forms a very thinly filled out bush like form. Chicory can often be found as a solitary plant. The flowers of the chicory plant will be closed at night and open each day.

The flowers are about an inch wide or a little more. They are light blue in color. The ends of the sepals are jagged as if they have been roughly bitten off forming 5 points. Each stamen alternates blue to white in color. The flowers are a great way to identify chicory but chicory only flowers from July until October.

The leaves are arranged alternately and get smaller the higher up on the plant they occur. The leaf shapes are stalked, lanceolate and without lobes, so no lobes and long and slender.

The plant grows to a height of about 3 feet (1 meter) tall and can be found in open areas.

The leaves and roots are edible. Although the flower is edible but doesn't taste good. The roots are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. The leaves are a bit bitter but not too overpowering so much that it is undesirable. I prefer to use chicory more as an ingredient rather than a meal unto itself, but in a survival situation it can provide you with a full meal.