Perennials (sometimes flowering first year). Leaves: blades of basal 5-35+ × 1-8(-12+) cm; cauline similar, smaller, narrower, distal mostly linear. Peduncles mostly 0-2 mm, some narrowly clavate, 12-45(-85+) mm. Phyllaries: outer 5-6 lance-ovate to lanceolate, 4-7 mm, basally cartilaginous, distally herbaceous, inner 8+ lance-linear to linear, 6-12 mm, herbaceous, all usually with some gland-tipped hairs 0.5-0.8 mm on margins near bases or on abaxial faces toward tips. Cypselae 2-3 mm; pappi 0.01-0.2 mm. 2n = 18. Flowering Apr-Jul. Disturbed sites; 0-1500 m; introduced; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Ark., Calif., Conn., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Maine, Mass., Mich., Mo., Nev., N.H., N.Y., N.C., Pa., R.I., Tex., Utah, Vt.; Europe; Asia; introduced also in Africa, South America. Leaves of Cichorium intybus are sometimes used as salad greens; the roasted roots are sometimes ground and used as an addition to (or adulterant of) coffee.

Plant: Perennial < 1 m, from deep, woody taproot; herbage glabrous to short-bristly, especially near base; stems erect; branches stout, ascending Leaves: basal and cauline, reduced upward; lower oblong to elliptic in outline, subentire to coarsely pinnately lobed, wing-petioled; middle sessile, sometimes clasping INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads ligulate, showy, terminal and axillary, lateral sessile; peduncles of terminal heads not thickened Flowers: many; ligules blue (pink, white), readily withering Fruit: 1.5-2.5 mm, oblong, glabrous, 5-angled; pappus of minute blunt scales < 0.5 mm Misc: Roadsides, waste places; < 1500 m.; Jun-Oct