Ixeris polycephala seed
LATIN NAME: Ixeris polycephala
COMMON NAME: Many-Headed Ixeris
The many-headed ixeris is a handsome, upright or sprawling, leafy, annual or biennial herb of the open, sunny places, and its fine, deeply lobed or toothed leaves and its fine, small, yellow, dandelion-like flower heads in the loose, branching clusters have made it a treasured and fine plant of the region. It grows as an upright or sprawling, leafy, annual or biennial herb, reaching up to sixty centimetres or so, with the many slender, leafy stems bearing the alternate, deeply lobed or toothed leaves and, through the summer, the fine, small, yellow, dandelion-like flower heads in the loose, branching clusters, followed by the fine, small, dry, many-seeded fruits with the fine, white hairs. It is a species of the flowering herb in the daisy family, and it is native to the open, sunny places of the eastern Asia, while it is treasured for its long history of use, and it is known as the many-headed ixeris.
In the daisy family it is the yellow, dandelion-like ixeris of the open places, a wayside plant whose young leaves have been gathered as a bitter green in the east.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The many-headed ixeris young leaves are a familiar subject in the food-plant papers of the region, and the fine, bitter greens have been examined by the researchers of the traditional ways. The botanists have mapped its place in the daisy family and the open-place flora, and the insect ecologists have counted the bees and the many insects on the small, yellow, dandelion-like flower heads. It is a plant of the wayside, useful kind, and the growers of the wildflower garden keep it in their catalogues.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
In the wildflower garden, the many-headed ixeris is the yellow plant of the sunny patch. Its dandelion-like flower heads feed the bees, its many-seeded fruits feed the small creatures, and the leafy growth gives the garden a fine, soft presence. The young leaves have been gathered and eaten as a bitter green in the traditional ways of the region, and the plant grows well in the gritty, well-drained ground of the open, sunny spot. Yellow, dandelion-flowered and useful.
These are willing seeds — sprinkle them over the surface of pots of gritty, free-draining soil and just press them in without covering them, since they like a little light, keep the pots in a bright, open spot and water them gently, and they’ll be up before long.