Source: Lao Yao talks about plants
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People usually call some edible Asteraceae plants with bitter taste "bitter herbs" or "bitter bitter herbs", in fact, this is people's image name for plants, and the objects of "bitter herbs" are different in various places. As far as I know, "bitter herb" is not an official middle name in botany, but a popular name and alias for plants, which mainly exist in the genus Bitter endive, lettuce, pseudo-radix and bitter herbaceous in the Asteraceae family. Let me now turn to that.
1. Bitter endive: also called bitter herb, Yunnan bitter English cabbage, etc., is an annual or biennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, with an erect solitary stem; basal leaves pinnately deeply lobed, middle and lower leaves of the stem pinnately deeply lobed or large head pinnate deeply lobed, lower stem and leaf split or not divided, base semi-hugging stem; A few capitate inflorescences are arranged at the tips of the stems and branches in tight umbel or racemes, and the flowers are yellow. It is produced in the north and south of the continent, wild, and the young stems and leaves are edible.
2. Full-leaf endive: It is called bitter endive and endive (qu) in many places in the north, which is a perennial herb of the Asteraceae family, with stolons, erect stems, and all stems and branches are hairless; basal leaves are homomorphic with stems, oblong, linear, spoon-shaped, lanceolate or inverted-lanceolate, leaf margins not divided, whole margin or with spikes, smooth on both sides; Few or most of the inflorescences are arranged at the tips of the stems and branches in an umbrella inflorescence, and the flowers are yellow. It is distributed in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Henan, Hunan, Sichuan and Tibet. Its roots, young stems and leaves are edible as vegetables.
3. Endive: also called bitter herb, it is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, with erect stems and glandular hairs in the inflorescence; basal leaves are numerous, and the middle and lower leaves of the stem are holomorphic, inverted-lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, pinnate or inverted to the pinnate deeply-lobed, semi-lobed or shallowly lobed, the leaves of the upper leaves of the stem and the lower part of the inflorescence branches are lanceolate or linear-drilled, very small, the leaves above the middle of the stem are sessile, and the stems are semi-hugged; The inflorescences are arranged at the tips of the stems and branches in an umbrella inflorescence, and the flowers are yellow. It is produced in Shaanxi, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Fujian, Hunan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet and other provinces and regions in mainland China. Its young stems and leaves are edible as vegetables.
4, interrupted chrysanthemum: also called flower-leaved Yunnan bitter herb, bitter herb, flower-leaf Yunnan bitter herbaceous, is an annual herbaceous plant of the Asteraceae family endive, the stem is erect, longitudinal ridges or longitudinal lines, the stem branches are hairless, and the inflorescence has glandular hairs; The basal leaves are of the same type as the stem leaves, the middle and lower stems and leaves are oblong, obovate, spoon-shaped or spoon-elliptic, and the upper stems and leaves are lanceolate and unlobed; lower or all stems and leaves pinnate shallow, semi-lobed, or deeply lobed; All leaves and lobes have sharp toothed spines on the margins, glabrous on both sides; The capitate inflorescences are arranged at the tips of the stems and branches into dense umbel inflorescences, and the flowers are yellow. It is distributed in many places in the north and south of the mainland. Its young leaves can be eaten as vegetables.
5. Chinese bitter horsetail: also called bitter herbaceous, mountain bitter horsetail, small bitter endive, bitter hemp seed, Chinese small bitter horse, etc., is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, the stem is erect solitary or clustered; The leaf shape varies greatly, the basal leaves are oblong-elliptic, inverted-lanceolate, linear or tongue-shaped, the leaf margin is entire, not divided or pinnate shallowly lobed, semi-lobed or deeply lobed, the stem leaves are 2-4, long lanceolate or oblong-elliptic-lanceolate, not lobed; The capitate inflorescences are arranged at the tips of the stems and branches into umbel inflorescences, and the flowers are yellow or white. It is produced in some provinces and regions in the north and south of the mainland, and the young stems and leaves are eaten in some places.
6, bitter saucer: its official name is sharp crack false yang ginseng, alias bitter herb, stem bitter horseweed, autumn bitter horsetail, wild bitter horsetail, small bitter horsetail, etc., is a perennial herb of the Asteraceae family false Yang ginseng, the upper part of the stem has branches; Basal leaves rosette-shaped, spoon-shaped to oblong-elliptic, with undehisced margins
or large pinnately deeply lobed, the upper leaves of the stem are heart-lanceolate, and the base hugs the stem; The inflorescences are arranged in an umbrella or umbrella panicles, and the flowers are yellow. Produced in some provinces and regions in the north and south of the mainland, its young stems and leaves can be eaten as vegetables.
7. Milk lettuce: also called bitter herb, bitter bitter herb, purple flower mountain lettuce, Mengshan lettuce, etc., is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae lettuce, with hairless stems and branches; middle and lower leaves of stem oblong-elliptic, linear-oblong or linear, nearly sessile, pinnate shallowly lobed, semi-lobed or large serrate, upper leaves of stem isomorphic or broadly linear with middle, glabrous on both sides; The inflorescences are arranged in panicles, and the flowers are purple or purple-blue.
It is produced in Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet and other provinces and regions in mainland China, and its seedlings and young leaves are edible.
In other places, the Asteraceae plant long-split endive, shallow-split endive, mountain lettuce, etc. are also called bitter herbs, so I will not repeat them here.