This week I step forward on behalf of chicory, a common wayside
plant that many also consider to be noxious or worse. In the
Golden Press guide titled “Weeds” (1972), Alexander C. Martin
doesn’t beat around the bush: “Chicory ... is a Eurasian
perennial that is clearly a weed and sometimes a serious pest.”
Even as far back as the century before Christ’s birth, the Roman
poet Virgil paused to single out chicory’s pestiferous qualities
in this manner: “And spreading succ’ry chokes the rising
fields.” Succory, blue sailors, and coffee-weed are but a few of
the common names applied to chicory (Cichorium intybus). The
plant was naturalized in North America shortly after the first
European settlers arrived, especially in Pennsylvania where it
was prized as both a medicinal and culinary plant. It quickly
spread and is now firmly established throughout the United
States and southern Canada. The name chicory derives from its
Arabic name “chicourey.” Succory, from the Latin “succurrere”
for “to run under,” perhaps refe