Cicerbita alpina, commonly known as the alpine sow-thistle or alpine blue-sow-thistle is a perennial herbaceous species of plant formerly placed in the genus Lactuca as Lactuca alpina. It is native to upland and mountainous parts of Europe.
It was once used as an herb in Sami cooking, and known as jierja.
Description Cicerbita alpina on average reaches in height, with a minimum height of and a maximum height of . The stem is erect and usually unbranched. It has glandular hairs and contains a white milky juice, a kind of latex. The alternate leaves are broad, triangular and clasping the stem, bluish-grey beneath, hairy along the veins and with toothed margins. The inflorescence is a panicle. Each composite flower is about wide and is set within a whorl of bracts. The individual blue-violet florets are tongue-like with a toothed, truncated tip, each having five stamens and a fused carpel. All the florets are ray florets; there are no disc florets. The seeds are clothed in unbranched hairs. The flowering period extends from June to September in the temperate northern hemisphere.
Distribution and habitat Cicerbita alpina grows on many mountains of Europe (the Alps, the Pyrenees, the northern Apennines, the Scandinavian Peninsula, Scotland (where it is endangered and found in only four known locations), the Carpathians and the Urals. These plants can be found in alpine woods, besides streams, in rich-soil in hollows and in tall meadows, usually between above sea level.
Conservation It became a protected species in the UK in 1975 under the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act.
Ecology In Finland, this plant is known as "bear-hay" because the Eurasian brown bear feeds on it, as do elk and reindeer. People also sometimes make use of it and eat it raw or cooked in reindeer milk.
Secondary metabolites The edible shoots of Cicerbita alpina contain 8-O-Acetyl-15-beta-D-glucopyranosyllactucin, which causes the bitter taste of the vegetable, and caffeic acid derivatives chlorogenic acid, 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, caffeoyltartaric acid, and cichoric acid.
Gallery
References
Pignatti S. - Flora d'Italia - Edagricole – 1982. vol. III
External links Cicerbita alpina Plant Life, United Kingdom Biolib, Czech Botany Zipcode Zoo, Cicerbita alpina Cicerbita alpina image gallery, Flower Pictures United States