Chicory / Ragged Sailor

Chicory is another one of those quiet participants in human history. During the two world wars, when many things were rationed, coffee was hard to get. The Chicory root was roasted and ground and used as a coffee substitute. Even when crops of the coffee bean have been damaged, which drives up the cost, the large coffee manufactures added chicory to the coffee sold here in the U. S. to keep costs down . I have always known this flower to be called Ragged Sailor . It is another of those plants that seem to bloom only until noon or mid-afternoon and then close up. It opens in the morning a lovely blue, and by afternoon it has faded to sometimes almost white and looks quite ragged, not unlike sailors of old who left port looking quite dashing in their blue uniforms only to return months later quite faded by the sun and ragged from the wear and tear at sea.

Where I found it : in the field