Photo by Public domain (iNaturalist) on iNaturalist · CC0 (public domain)
Burdock root
Arctium minus
This one has a dangerous look-alike
Second-year plants have the burs and a woody, useless root. Take care not to confuse young rosettes with foxglove, which is toxic — burdock leaves are heart-shaped with hollow leaf stalks.
- When
- Typically March – November — October, November, March, April. Earlier in the south, later in the north.
- Where it grows
- Waste ground, ditches and old barnyards.
- How to know it
- Dig first-year plants — a rosette of huge rhubarb-like leaves, woolly and pale underneath, with no flower stalk yet.
- Harvest and use
- The gobo of Japanese cooking. Long taproot, deep digging; scrub, slice and braise.
Found in these regions
- Boreal North & Taiga
- Boreal Forest & Shield
- Acadian Forest & Atlantic Coast
- Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Lowlands
- Northeast Atlantic Coast & Piedmont
- Appalachian Highlands
- Central Hardwoods & Interior Plateaus
- Southeastern Piedmont & Coastal Plain
- Gulf Coast & Mississippi Lowlands
- Florida Peninsula
- Prairies & Great Plains
- Western Mountains & Interior Plateaus
- Pacific Maritime
- Mediterranean California
- Deserts & Dry Basins
- Hawaiʻi & the Tropics
Is it ready near you?
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Also ready in September
FruitAugust – SeptemberBeach plum
Prunus maritima
Low sprawling shrub in the sand, with dusty purple plums about the size of a marble.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Tom Norton · CC BY 4.0
NutSeptember – OctoberBlack walnut
Juglans nigra
Tennis-ball green husks lying under a tall tree with long compound leaves; the husk stains everything it touches brown.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Sandy Wolkenberg · CC BY 4.0
FruitAugust – SeptemberChokecherry
Prunus virginiana
Long drooping clusters of dark red-to-black cherries on a small tree with finely toothed oval leaves.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Tom Norton · CC BY 4.0
Educational information only. Never eat a wild plant or mushroom identified from a single photograph or description — confirm with a regional field guide or an experienced forager, and know the poisonous species in your area first.