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I am in Northumberland, UK. This is growing in my veggie plot and cannot find out what plant it is....looks like a triffid!! It is one stem growing out of the ground and has many stems growing on the side of the main one which lie along the soil with no roots appearing.

I placed a couple of pea pods beside the brick to show the size. Hope someone can help. Thank you.

enter image description here enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ The closest that I can get is some sort of chicory, but I'm not confident enough to make this an actual answer. $\endgroup$
    – Alan Boyd
    Aug 30 '17 at 18:27
  • $\begingroup$ Neither, it's a very silly title, probably composed to attract attention. I am voting to close this question until you give your question a more descriptive title. $\endgroup$
    – David
    Aug 30 '17 at 21:27
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, Alan, I am inclined to agree that it is a Cichorium mainly because I cannot find any thing else. $\endgroup$
    – weeducks
    Aug 31 '17 at 13:16
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    $\begingroup$ Terribly sorry, David, for upsetting you and possibly it was to attract attention but it was a valid question as nobody seems to know exactly what this plant is. I am guessing you got out of the wrong side of the bed yesterday. $\endgroup$
    – weeducks
    Aug 31 '17 at 13:27
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Alan is right to call this a Cichorium. It is Cichorium endivia, Endive. It is a tropical plant that is widely cultivated for its edible leaves. However, when it flowers the leaves die, so you don't recognize the plant as Endive. The dying leaves can be seen on the picture below, from the Dutch wikipedia page.

enter image description here

https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andijvie

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 Thanks for clarifying this, I couldn't find an image that convinced me like this one does. $\endgroup$
    – Alan Boyd
    Sep 2 '17 at 12:02
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, both, the photo does indeed look exactly like what is in my plot. I have always thought of endive as been the dense curly head of salad greens. I found this very interesting having got a google translation of The Netherlands Wikipedia. Funnily enough, I have not sown nor planted Cichoriums of any kind so probably blown in on the wind. $\endgroup$
    – weeducks
    Sep 3 '17 at 19:57

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