Common brighteyes
Reichardia picroides
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
The yellow daisy with bluish fleshy leaves, one of the few in the group that genuinely tastes good, without the bitterness of the others. It is a traditional salad all along the Mediterranean coast.
Roadsides and waste ground · Scrubland · Walls and rocks · Fields and pasture
Also known asFrench scorzonera
How to tell it
Blue-green, slightly fleshy leaves, smooth and hairless, very variable, some entire and some cut. Yellow heads often with a darker centre, or reddish beneath. The outer bracts are broad, rounded and with a white membranous margin, which is the mark. White latex.
What it is confused with
Prickly goldenfleece
Urospermum picroides
Brighteyes is smooth and bluish with white-margined bracts; prickly goldenfleece is rough and hairy, its bracts fused into a cup. Neither is dangerous, but only brighteyes tastes good.
What it is for
Gathered for centuries as a salad in Spain, Italy and Greece, raw or cooked, and among the most prized wild greens of the Mediterranean. Traditional use. Gather away from roads and treated fields, as with any salad green.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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