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Harmless🍽️ Edible

🌼 Common Nipplewort

Lapsana communis · Asteraceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it“Nipplewort is the little yellow one that sleeps in the afternoon” — its tiny flower heads close as the sun fades, unlike dandelion which stays open longer.
Common Nipplewort — Lapsana communis

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

A small, unassuming composite plant found in undergrowth and wasteland, often overlooked because it looks quite ordinary: a thin branched stem, soft leaves that are barely divided, and tiny pale yellow flower heads barely wider than a pea, open only in the morning. The entire plant is tender and free of sticky latex, unlike many of its Asteraceae cousins.

  1. small pale yellow flower heads of 1-2 cm, few ray florets (often 8-15)
  2. flower heads close in the afternoon and during overcast weather
  3. soft leaves, the basal leaf often lyrate (one large terminal lobe, a few small lateral ones)
  4. thin stem, hairy at the base, branched, without spines
  5. scarce milky sap unlike dandelion or sow thistle
Size20-90 cm
FloweringJune-September
Habitatopen undergrowth, hedges, rubble, gardens, walls — prefers light shade

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Common sow thistle or common groundsel at a young stage (Sonchus oleraceus / Senecio vulgaris)none with sow thistle (also edible); common groundsel is toxic (pyrrolizidine alkaloids)

To tell them apart: nipplewort lacks the clasping, spiny leaves of sow thistle and the small tubular yellow heads without visible petals of groundsel; its flower heads have clearly visible, pale yellow ray florets

🍽️ Eating it

Partsyoung leaves, young shoots
Seasonmars-juin
Tastemild, slightly bitter with age, without the harsh sharpness of dandelion

Preparation : raw leaves in salads when young (slightly milder than lamb's lettuce), or cooked for 5-10 min like spinach; softens quickly when cooked

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • traditional French countryside "famine plant", referred to as "salade de curé" (priest's salad) or "herbe aux mamelles" in several 19th-century popular flora records
Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.