Although burdock is native to Europe and Asia, it has been naturalized throughout North America. I find it growing in fields or along hiking trails as you would any common weed. Several states even consider it invasive, so we need not tread so lightly when it comes to receiving the medicinal and nutritive gifts this weed has to offer. This is a plant ripe for foraging throughout much of the year and is even cultivated as a food crop throughout Asia and imported in America for sale at some groceries such as Dekalb Farmers Market.
In Korean, Japanese, and other East Asian cuisines, Burdock root is often sautéed in a pan with soy sauce and sesame seeds such as in Kinpira Gobo. Burdock is often served with kimchi and other small plates at the start of meals. If you have attended my foraging tours for the summer, you have likely sampled my Kinpira Gobo and some burdock root tea.
In European traditions, Burdock is more often used in the form of fresh leaf tea or root tincture, though it can be roasted in a pan with other root vegetables. Burdock root tastes earthy and bitter, a bit like parsnip or celeriac root, and therefore benefits from a bit of honey or maple syrup in cooking. In both Asian and European culture as well as modern western herbalism, burdock is used as a liver detoxifier, digestive, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, alterative or blood purifier. By supporting the liver's detoxification processes, burdock can help to sooth skin conditions such as eczema or acne and may have some potential in cancer treatment.
There are three common species of burdock commonly found in the United States, Arctium minus, Arctium lappa, and Arctium tomentosum, each with unique physiological characteristics.
A. minus (lesser burdock) grows to a height of 5 to 6.5 feet, has flower heads 1/2 to 1 inch wide, either stalkless or on short stalks and the flowers stick up above the bracts, and its lower leaf stalks are mostly hollow with a noticeable furrow on top.
A. lappa (greater burdock) grows taller - up to 9ft tall, has larger flower heads 1 to 1-1/2 inch wide, on long stalks the upper bracts are as long as the flowers. Flowers themselves are identical. The lower leaves of A lappa are solid with grooves, a deep furrow and clasp the stem.
A tomentosum (wooly burdock) can be distinguished by dense cobwebby hairs on the flowerheads, leaf undersides, and young leaf stems.
Burdock is a biennial plant, meaning that it has a two year growth cycle. Depending on the stage of its growth the plant will look different and have different harvestable parts. If you find the plant in its first year growth stage, you can harvest young leaves though they are bitter and easy to mistake for other plants in their young stage. You can boil the leaves in changes of water to get some of the bitterness out, but you will be losing nutritional value. You can however, safely use burdock leaves of any stage to wrap around food for storing.
During its first fall, you can also harvest the plant's root. The root grows up to roughly 3ft long and straight down. It is the most commonly used part of the plant for both food and medicine, although it is very laborious to dig up if it isn't found in very soft soil.
In its second year growth stage, the plant sends up its central stalk as shown below. To harvest and eat the stalk, you have to catch it before it flowers. Once it has gone to flower the stalk becomes woody and inedible. The stalk if caught at the proper time can be peeled and steamed or boiled and has an artichoke like flavor. Here's a recipe for a stalk tapenade.
Beware when harvesting burdock to not mistaken it for rhubarb, which looks very similar to burdock in its first year growth stage with their heart leaf shapes and basal formations. While rhubarb stalks are edible and delicious, their leaves have toxic amounts of oxalic acid and consuming too much could lead to kidney stones or kidney failure. The main visual differences between the two is that rhubarb has more red in its stems, and are dark and smooth on the underside of their leaves whereas the underside of burdock leaves are light colored with a fine wooly texture.
Young burdock leaves can also be mistaken with foxglove leaves (shown below) which are poisonous. Foxglove has a finely evenly toothed edge while burdock's is wavy and foxglove's veins are light in color and run more in alignment with midrib rather than straight out to the edges like burdock. Foxglove will have a different flower than burdock and a different root formation.
Burdock has also been mistaken for yellow dock (shown below) whose leaves stems and root can also be used for food and medicine when properly prepared. The shape, size, and flowers of these plants are very different, but I personally think it is valuable to know about plants that look similar as you are learning so you can see the differences.
Take some time to learn more about burdock and go for a walk and see if you can find it in your neighborhood! Always consult an expert before consuming wild foods. The information provided is for educational purposes only.
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