''Cicerbita alpina'', commonly known as the alpine sow-thistle or alpine blue-sow-thistle is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

herbaceous species of plant sometimes placed in the genus '' Cicerbita'' of the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

, and sometimes placed in the genus ''

Lactuca ''Lactuca'', commonly known as lettuce, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. The genus includes at least 50 species, distributed worldwide, but mainly in temperate Eurasia. Its best-known representative is the garden lettuce ...

'' as ''Lactuca alpina''. It is native to upland and mountainous parts of Europe. It was once used as an herb in

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

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 In botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the An ...

. 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 Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

, the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, the northern Apennines, the Scandinavian Peninsula,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

(where it is endangered and found in only four known locations), the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

and the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

. 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 The Eurasian brown bear (''Ursus arctos arctos'') is one of the most common subspecies of the brown bear, and is found in much of Eurasia. It is also called the European brown bear, common brown bear, common bear, and colloquially by many othe ...

feeds on it, as do elk and

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

. 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 Caffeic acid is an organic compound that is classified as a hydroxycinnamic acid. This yellow solid consists of both phenolic and acrylic functional groups. It is found in all plants because it is an intermediate in the biosynthesis of lignin, one ...

derivatives

chlorogenic acid Chlorogenic acid (CGA) is the ester of caffeic acid and (−)-quinic acid, functioning as an intermediate in lignin biosynthesis. The term "chlorogenic acids" refers to a related polyphenol family of esters, including hydroxycinnamic acids ( caf ...

, 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''

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1477580 Cichorieae Flora of Europe Flora of the Alps Flora of the Pyrenees Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN