Common Sow-thistle
Sonchus oleraceus L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- —
- tall
- 65 cm
- wide
- —
Asteraceae
Also called Common sow thistle, Smooth Sow-thistle, Annual Sowthistle, Sow Thistle, Common sowthistle
Formerly Sonchus angustissimus, Sonchus ciliatus, Sonchus fabrae, Sonchus gracilis, and 15 more
When it flowers
Flowers all year in the tropics.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Annual or biennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Macaronesia, Europe to Medit., Sahara to Arabian Pen.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from Wikipedia, one source
- Height
- 30 cm to 99 cmRead from Wikipedia, one source
Not known yet: spread, water, flowers, coldest it survives, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Dutch
- Gewone melkdistel, gewone melkdistel
- Spanish
- Achicoria europea, Cerraja, Cerrajón, Cerraja
- root
- chichicaquílitl, lishonch'an, SONOLE
- myn
- nabuk'ak
- German
- Gemüse-Gänsedistel, Kohl-Gänsedistel, Gewöhnliche Gänsedistel
- Chinese
- 苦蕒菜, 苦苣菜, 苦滇菜
- Hawaiian
- pualele
- French
- laiteron potager, laiteron maraîcher
- Italian
- Grespino comune, Cicerbita
- Hebrew
- מרור הגינות
- Russian
- Осот огородный
- Swedish
- Kålmolke
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Sonchus oleraceus (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.