July in the midwest brings welcome friends along country roadsides - chicory, Queen Anne's Lace, and a little later, Joe Pye Weed and Ironweed. Chicory has a captivating indigo blue tone and seems to thrive in apparently scrub soil. It's in full bloom now, along with Queen Anne's Lace, by the road that abuts Bittersweet Woods.
Along Glendale road next to Bittersweet Woods.
For many years, I did not realize that the beautiful flower was called chicory. I remember chicory as something added to Luzianne coffee to give it a less bitter taste. I figured it came from some lush rain forest. Wrong. It grows in otherwise ugly waste areas in the U.S. and Europe. The root has been used for centuries as an herb and as flavoring of coffees or a coffee/tea substitute. Civil war soldiers made a type of tea from it when they ran out of tea or coffee.
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