Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-310
Greater Burdock
Arctium lappa
Burdock is grown for its long taproot - gobo, a staple root vegetable across Japan, Korea and Taiwan - along with edible young leaves, stalks, flower pith and sprouted seed, five edible parts from one plant. Its root is also rated as one of the most powerful detoxifying herbs in both Chinese and Western herbal medicine, used for boils, infections, eczema, acne and skin disease generally. Where summers run long and hot, it behaves as a fast first-year crop rather than the biennial the northern literature describes: sown in autumn and harvested by spring, it never has to face a hot summer or flower into the burrs that follow if it is left a second year.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–10
- Soil
- Loam
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate · Moist
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 4.6–7.8
- Plant type
- Biennial
- Mature height
- 2–10 ft
- Mature spread
- 2–4 ft
- Plant spacing
- 6 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
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African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
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Agrimony
Agrimonia eupatoria
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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
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Aloe Vera
Aloe vera
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
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Herbaceous · USDA 5–9
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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