Burdock is a very well known thistle, with beautiful
purple flowers that attract bees and butterflies.
It roots can be eaten. The prickly burrs stick to
furs and clothes.
Burdock roots or gobo
Its culinairy use is much the same as carrots,
and it plays a important role in the japanese
cuisine, were it is called gobo.
Burdock in the garden.
Seeding of burdock can be done starting in March until
August. you can eat the roots up to 5 months after
the seeding. For this reason, burdock is mostly
seeded in August: you have an excellent food for
the winter. The seed is covered by a thin layer of sand.
harvesting
Burdock roots
You can leave the roots in the ground until needed
for food preparation.
burdock recipes
Burdock root can be julienned and chopped
in thin slices, baked in oil or cooked in,
soupe, very similar as the use of carrots.
But the cleaning of burdock roots is far
more time consuming.
The burrs remains attached to the burdock until
the next year, waiting for an animal passing by.
burdock and parsley
Burs.
These seeds are spread by animals (and humans), they stick
to tails of horses and cows , the fur of rabits or the wings of birds:
It is a form of epichory: the spread of the seed from plants with
low investment of energy in the seed. Have a look at these examples:
1 burdock (Arctium sp.)
2 wood forgetmenot (Myosotis)
3 Cleavers (Gallium aparine)
4 avens (Geum urbanum) 5 alfalfa (Medicago)
6 beggarticks or stickseeds (Bidens)
7 common agrimony or sticklewort (agrimonia eupatoria)
8 sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum)
9 Bidi-bidi (Acaenae novae), new Zealand
10 common ragweed (Ambrosia artimisiifolia)
11 enchanter's nightshad (Circaea lutetiana)
12 sweet cicely( Osmorhiza) USA
13 american stickseed (Hackelia deflexa ) USA
The burrs remains attached to the burdock until 
