Family: Asteraceae
High Risk Traits:
- Broad climate suitability
- Primarily a temperate species, but able to grow in regions with tropical climates
- Widely naturalized outside native range, but no evidence in Hawaiian Islands to date
- A disturbance weed with negative impacts on agriculture
- A potential environmental weed (reports from Australia are mostly anecdotal)
- Other Cichorium species are invasive
- Possibly toxic to pigs
- May cause contact dermatitis
- Tolerates many soil types (substrate not a limiting factor to spread)
- Reproduces by seeds and vegetatively from root fragments
- Hybridizes with other Cichorium species
- Some populations are self-compatible (although self-incompatibility is generally reported)
- A biennial that sometimes reaches maturity in first growing season
- Seeds dispersed intentionally and unintentionally by people, animals, wind (short distances) and water
- Can become a seed contaminant of other crops
- Prolific seed production
- Some viable seeds persist in the soil for several years
- Resprouts from roots after cutting, mowing or grazing
Low Risk Traits:
- Domesticated, self-incompatible forms exist that may reduce risk of escape and spread
- Unarmed (no spines, thorns, or burrs)
- Thrives in full sun (tolerates partial shade), which may limit spread into intact forests
- Provides fodder for livestock (palatable despite reports of toxicity to pigs)
- Economic value as a crop may outweigh negatives in certain situations
- Some herbicides provide effective control