Burdock
Arctium lappa
The burr that invented Velcro. The root that fed the hungry. The plant that refuses to be ignored.
Overview
Burdock is a plant of insistent presence. It grows to waist height or above, with leaves the size of dinner plates and globose purple-flowered heads that develop, by September, into the hooked burrs that attach to clothing and animal fur with the stubborn ingenuity that inspired a Swiss engineer named George de Mestral, in 1941, to examine them under a microscope and spend the next decade developing Velcro. That the hook-and-loop fastener owes its existence to a roadside weed is the kind of fact that takes on different weight depending on what you think about weeds.
Botanical Notes
A biennial, 60–150cm, with massive heart-shaped basal leaves, downy white beneath, and stout, branching stems in the second year bearing numerous globose flower heads of purple florets surrounded by stiff, hooked bracts, from July to September. The hooked bracts dry to form the familiar burrs, 2–4cm, which disperse by attaching to passing animals and clothing. The taproot is thick, fleshy, and edible, reaching 60cm or more in good soil. Found on disturbed ground, roadsides, hedge margins, waste places, and the edges of woodland throughout Europe. Related lesser burdock (*A. minus*) is more common in many areas but produces smaller burrs; the two are used interchangeably. The root contains inulin, mucilage, and polyacetylenes; the seeds contain arctiin, a lignan with demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity.
Lore & History
The root of burdock, called gobo, has been cultivated and eaten in Japan for at least a thousand years; it is one of the few European plants to have a more substantial culinary tradition in East Asia than in its native range. In Britain, the roots were a famine food — available when little else was — and burdock beer, brewed from the dried root and dandelion, was a common drink in northern England until the twentieth century when the commercial version, dandelion and burdock, replaced it. The plant appears in several traditional blood-purifying formulas, typically alongside dandelion and nettle, in the Eclectic and Victorian herbal traditions; the assumption that large, deep roots must access and purify the deep blood seems to have been compelling across several centuries of healers who had not read each other.
Warnings
Very safe. The root and leaves are edible. Contact dermatitis has been reported in sensitive individuals handling the leaves repeatedly; the tiny hooks of the bracts can cause mechanical skin irritation. Avoid concentrated seed preparations in pregnancy — arctiin has shown some uterine activity in animal studies. The plant may accumulate heavy metals from contaminated soil; gather from clean sites away from roadsides.