Nipplewort

How to recognise it

Growth habit

Upright annual, 20–100 cm tall, much and loosely branched at the top. The stem is slightly hairy at the base and contains white milky sap.

Leaf

Lower leaves lyre-shaped: a large, oval, toothed end lobe with a few small lobes on the stalk. Upper leaves smaller, oval to lance-shaped and stalkless.

Flower

Pale yellow heads 1.5–2 cm across, made up only of strap-shaped florets, about 8–15 per head, in a loose, branched cluster. They open in the morning and close by early afternoon and in dull weather.

Fruit/Seed

Narrow, slightly curved, ribbed seeds 3–5 mm long, without a pappus. After flowering, the bracts close around the seeds like a small tube.

Roots

Short taproot with fine side roots: the plant is easy to pull up.

Confusion with

Smooth hawk’s-beard and other yellow daisies have seeds with a white pappus. Wall lettuce has heads of only five florets and sharply cut leaves. Sow-thistles are more robust, with spiny-toothed leaves. Nipplewort: small heads, no pappus and a large end lobe on the lower leaves.

Flowering: June–September · Pruning: August–September

Why grow it?

• Flowers from June into September and offers pollen and nectar to hoverflies, small solitary bees and flies. Its value for insects is modest, though: the heads are small and only open for a few hours a day.
• Seed-eating birds such as finches and sparrows pick up the seeds in late summer.
• Grows in partial shade under hedges and at the foot of walls, where few other wild flowers bloom.
• The young leaves are edible and were once eaten as a leaf vegetable or in salads: hence the ‘kool’ (cabbage) in its Dutch name.
• A handy indicator: where nipplewort thrives, the soil is rich and fairly moist.

Nipplewort: where does it grow best?

• In the wild along woodland edges, in clearings, along hedgerows, sunken lanes and walls, and as a weed in fields, vegetable gardens and public planting.
• Partial shade is ideal, but it also grows in full sun and in fairly deep shade.
• Rich, humus-rich soil that does not dry out: loam, clay or improved sand.
• In the garden it belongs in a wild border, a hedgerow or the edge of a hedge, not in a tidy flower border.

Goes well with

• Herb Robert: Grows in the same partial shade of hedges and woodland edges and flowers pink for months.
• Garlic mustard: Another hedge-edge plant of rich soil, with small white flowers in April–May; food plant of the orange-tip.
• Red campion: Pink flowers in the same partly shaded hedge edge, from May into summer.
• Yellow archangel: An early bloomer under hedges, for bumblebees in spring.
• Common nettle: Food plant of the peacock and red admiral; together they make a rich, wild hedge edge.

Nipplewort: when and how to plant it?

1. Usually you need do nothing: nipplewort arrives on its own, with seed from nearby, with imported soil or with potted plants.
2. If you want to give it a place on purpose, sow seed from your own garden or from a native plant nursery in September–October or March–April.
3. Scatter the seed thinly on loosened soil and rake it in lightly; it germinates within a few weeks.
4. Thin to 20–30 cm between plants. Watering is only needed if it stays dry for a long time after sowing.
5. Choose a spot in a wild border or hedge edge where it may self-seed without taking over your vegetable garden.
6. Never take plants or seed from nature reserves: collect seed only in your own garden or with permission.

Care

Watering

Not needed, except for young seedlings in a dry spring.

Feeding

Don’t. On rich soil it grows tall and floppy; on poorer soil it stays more compact.

Weeding

In the vegetable garden, pull up the rosettes in spring or hoe them off, preferably before flowering. The short roots come out easily.

Spreading

One plant produces a lot of seed, which stays viable in the soil for some time. A layer of mulch on the vegetable beds slows germination.

Self-seeding

Let a few plants flower in a wild corner: that way you keep it, and the birds get the seed.

Tip: Weed nipplewort out of the vegetable garden before it flowers, but leave a few plants in a wild corner under the hedge: you get the benefits without the bother.

Pruning and mowing

Pruning months: August–September.

When: In August–September, after flowering, if you want to stop it self-seeding too much.

How:

• Cut or pull out faded stems before the seeds ripen if you want fewer seedlings.
• If you want seed for the birds, leave some plants until the seed is ripe and only clear them afterwards.
• Dead plants can go on the compost heap, preferably before the seeds are ripe.
• In a wild border, leave a few dead stems standing until spring as shelter for small insects.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

Nipplewort only spreads by seed. Sow in autumn or early spring; autumn seedlings overwinter as a rosette and flower earlier the following year.

Self-seeding

Let a few plants drop their seed. In spring, keep the seedlings that are in a good spot and weed out the rest.

Nipplewort: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −20 °C.

• Nipplewort is an annual: the plants die after setting seed.
• Autumn seedlings overwinter as a small leaf rosette and are fully hardy.
• The seed overwinters in the soil and germinates in spring.

Diseases and pests

• Too many seedlings: It can come up in masses in vegetable beds and borders. Hoe in dry weather, weed before flowering and keep bare soil covered with mulch.
• Aphids: Aphids sometimes sit on the flowering stems. Leave them: they feed ladybirds, hoverfly larvae and tits.
• Rust: Orange or brown pustules on the leaves are common. It is a rust that lives mainly on nipplewort; there is no need to do anything.
• Flopping: On very rich, shady soil it grows lanky and falls over. That is no disaster; otherwise let it grow in a slightly lighter spot.

Through the year

• March: Seedlings germinate. Sow on a bare patch in a wild border.
• April: The rosettes grow. Weed or hoe in the vegetable garden.
• May: The stems shoot up. Weed out what you don’t want to keep, before flowering.
• June: Flowering begins: look in the morning, when the heads are open.
• July: Full flower. Hoverflies visit the flowers.
• August: Flowering and first ripe seeds. Cut off faded stems if you want fewer seedlings.
• September: Last flowers. Let the seed drop or collect it; clear dead plants.
• October: Autumn seedlings appear. Sow for flowers next year.

Did you know?

• The name nipplewort refers to the flower buds, which look like small nipples. Following the old doctrine of signatures, the plant was therefore once used for sore nipples.
• Because the seeds have no pappus, they simply drop beneath the plant or hitch a ride in mud on shoes, tools and wheels.
• The Dutch name akkerkool, field cabbage, refers to the edible leaves, which were once eaten as a vegetable.