Species
+

Cichorium intybus L.

Achicoria (ES), Belgium Endive, Blowball, Blue Sailors

Climate known 78 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Common chicory is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Native to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, it has been introduced to the Americas, Australia, and South Africa.

Text from Wikipedia, “Chicory”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cichorium

Cichorium is a genus of plants in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. The genus includes two cultivated species commonly known as chicory or endive, plus several wild species.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cichorium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Norway +57
Wild records
467 in range· 151 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
744mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 76 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 744 mm a year, wettest October at 76 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -9.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as ? glabrum C.Presl; Cichorium balearicum Porta; Cichorium byzanthinum Clementi; Cichorium caeruleum Gilib.; Cichorium callosum Pomel and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (543 mm of 744 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 17.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 744 mm a year, wettest October at 76 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

744 mm a year at the habitat, 543 mm of it May to December. Wettest month October at 76 mm, driest April at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 505 mm to 1069 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -9.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -9.0 °C, the absolute minimum -18.1 °C, about 59 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -10.4 °C to 6.7 °C), warmest day 24.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from -0 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 744 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 402 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost28.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 6–38RH 58–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 402 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / -5–146 / -5–1510 / 1–1714 / 10–1919 / 16–2222 / 19–2724 / 21–3023 / 21–3019 / 15–2614 / 8–229 / 0–176 / -4–15
Night °C-0 / -10–70 / -11–72 / -6–95 / 1–119 / 7–1413 / 11–1815 / 14–2115 / 13–2112 / 8–198 / 3–154 / -4–111 / -9–8
Rain mm56 / 31–9250 / 29–8148 / 28–8347 / 30–8758 / 37–10068 / 17–9968 / 7–9561 / 10–9667 / 32–9976 / 38–11475 / 41–11670 / 40–120
DLI8 / 4–1513 / 8–2121 / 16–3029 / 26–3835 / 32–4338 / 33–4737 / 32–4831 / 27–4322 / 18–3314 / 9–238 / 4–166 / 3–13
RH %66 / 59–7263 / 58–7061 / 57–6458 / 55–6158 / 53–6158 / 54–6259 / 52–6259 / 53–6261 / 56–6363 / 58–6566 / 59–6867 / 60–71

Each figure is the median across the 402 grid cells holding the 465 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 750:3725 (52.475, 6.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 402 distinct grid cells holding the 465 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 750:3725 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 52.50_6.250, lapse-corrected -6 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Cape Verde, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Pakistan, West Himalaya· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Libya, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Gulf States, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Juan Fernández Is., Paraguay, Uruguay
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker55.251, 9.229 · in the densest population, 139 records (30% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 467 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 151 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2924 km away. 381 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 467 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cichorium intybusCichorium intybusCichorium intybusCichorium intybusCichorium intybusCichorium intybusCichorium intybusCichorium intybus

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Вячеслав Юсупов, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cichorium intybus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antioxidant and Free Radical Scavenging Properties of Twelve Traditionally Used Indian Medicinal Plants
Farrukh Aqil, Iqbal Ahmad, Zafar Mehmood (2006) · DergiPark (Istanbul University)
Anti-diabetic effects of Cichorium intybus in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats
Peter Natesan Pushparaj, H.K. Low, J. Manikandan, B.K.H. Tan (2006) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Wild food plants used on the Dubrovnik coast (south-eastern Croatia)
Katija Dolina, Łukasz Łuczaj (2014) · Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae
Cichorium intybus : Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology
Renée Street, Jasmeen Sidana, Gerhard Prinsloo (2013) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Ethnobotanical appraisal and cultural values of medicinally important wild edible vegetables of Lesser Himalayas-Pakistan
Arshad Mehmood Abbasi, Mir Ajab Khan, Munir H. Shah, Mohammad Maroof Shah (2013) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Inulin-type fructans and reduction in colon cancer risk: review of experimental and human data
Beatrice L. Pool‐Zobel (2005) · British Journal Of Nutrition
Structural insights into glycoside hydrolase family 32 and 68 enzymes: functional implications
Willem Lammens, Katrien Le Roy, Lindsey Schroeven, André Van Laere (2009) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Wild food plants used in the villages of the Lake Vrana Nature Park (northern Dalmatia, Croatia)
Łukasz Łuczaj, Norma Fressel, S.M. Perkovic (2013) · Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae
Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) as a food ingredient – Nutritional composition, bioactivity, safety, and health claims: A review
Jelena Perović, Vesna Tumbas Šaponjac, Jovana Kojić, Jelena Krulj (2020) · Food Chemistry
Effects of compost-derived humic acids on vegetable biomass production and microbial growth within a plant (Cichorium intybus)-soil system: a comparative study
Manuela M. Valdrighi, A. Pèra, Monica Agnolucci, Stefania Frassinetti (1996) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.