Effect:
Wound healing, metabolism stimulating
Areas of application:
Digestive problems, constipation, inflammation, swollen lymph nodes, wounds
Plant parts used:
Flowers, leaves
Collection time:
May to October
To find:
In clearcuts, damp forests, in gardens and near fields.
Ingredients:
Mucimate, bitter substances, minerals, vitamins
Other:
Common nipplewort is an annual, rarely biennial plant; it can grow to a height of between 30 and 100 cm, rarely even up to 125 cm. It is a semi-rosette plant and roots up to 35 cm deep into the ground. Common nipplewort produces milky sap. The upright stems are angular, panicle-branched at the top and bare or stiffly hairy in the lower part. All leaves are glabrous or sparsely hairy. The lower leaves are long-stalked and pinnately lyre-shaped, with the lateral leaf sections being small, ovate and the terminal leaflet very large. On the upper leaves, the lateral leaf sections disappear completely. They are short-stalked, ovate to lanceolate, bluntly toothed or entire. In a loosely panicled total inflorescence there are several cup-shaped partial inflorescences. The flower heads are about 1 cm in diameter and contain only eight to fifteen lingual leaflets. The zygomorphic, yellow ray florets are trimmed at the front end with five small teeth. Flowering time is from June to September.
In the kitchen, Common nipplewort is used like a vegetable. It also goes well in every salad, in vegetable soups, as spinach, omelettes, scrambled eggs, quiches and dried as a seasoning, even with potato dishes. Later, the plant parts become bitter and too fibrous, so the young rain cabbage sprouts and leaves are used.