Sowthistle

Sonchus oleraceus. 

Outside the arthouse SE14

common sowthistle, sowthistle, annual sowthistle, common milk sowthistle, milk thistle, milkweed, hares lettuce, soft thistle

Sonchus is a genus of the dandelion tribe.  Depending on your point of view, sow thistle is either troublesome or delicious.  Continuing with my examination of the maligned wildflowers in our universe, I have been drawing this plant.  It's really interesting to draw.  The leaves wrap around the stem with two auricles either side of the stem, and are grey-green.  The stems are hollow and if you break it, it exudes a milky sap. The stems can be green, purple or a lovely combination of both colours.  Depending on the age.  The flower heads are stripy. That's the botanical term, I'm sure.  The flower heads have a lovely shape when they are setting seed.

Sometimes the leaves have interesting white lines on them. Apparently this is due to miner flies.  They get into the leaf and much their way through, leaving tracks.

with a miner fly.

It grows happily in most places.  I have been drawing one that has grown up the side of the Arthouse, in between the paving stones.  Finding a little niche, where it can happily live out its life!

Most livestock will readily devour sow thistle in preference to grass (sows and hares), and this lettuce-relative is edible and nutritious to humans—in fact this is the meaning of the second part of the Latin name of the common sow thistle, oleraceus (From holeraceus meaning vegetable).

Aphids like this plant and they are often planted as "sacrificial plants" i.e. to guide the bad things away from the vegetables.

I think I will have to find a specimen that isn't growing amongst the rubbish of S.E. London before I try it with pasta, which is apparently a thing.

In Greek mythology, Theseus is said to have eaten sowthistle to gain power to help him slay the Minotaur in its Cretan labyrinth.