Skip to main content

Common sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus)

Tempuyung or common sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) is a species of plant in Asteraceae, an annual shrub with erect stems, 10-125 cm high, hollow, five-angled, branched, dark green and sometimes with a reddish purple tinge, grows in full sun and tolerates mostly soil conditions.

S. oleraceus has leaves oblong, oblong-ovate or lyrate, base sagittate, basal auricles usually with a tooth obliquely pointing downwards, margins very acutely irregular dentate, teeth not pungent, apex acute or rarely rounded and glaucous on the lower surface.

Dlium Common sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus)


Lowermost radical, more or less narrowed into a petiole, pinnatifidpinnati-partite with irregular, acutely aciculate-dentate lobes and often with a triangular or ovate acute terminal lobe. Peduncle 1-5 cm long.

The flowers are yellow or white, sitting on stalks at the ends of branches in irregular terminal panicles with main axes and lateral branches further forked and each axis ending in a flower or bud and having or not having hair.

Involucre 8-9 mm long. Phyllaries obtuse, glabrous or with very few gland-hairs. Corolla 1 cm long, light-yellow or white and sometimes tinged with purple. Fruitachene, 2.5-4 mm by 1 mm, brown, 3-ribbed on each face, wrinkled with narrow margins and compressed and obovoid in shape. Seedslight with white parachutes of silky hairs. Pappus 5-8 mm long.

Common sowthistle grows in most soil types, fields, meadows, roadsides, parks and yards, vacant lots, construction sites and trash cans in subtropical and tropical climates with altitudes of 500-1600 meters.





Tempuyung is used as a vegetable that is cooked or eaten raw as a salad, treating various kinds of infections, diseases and other medicinal uses. Sedatives, diuretics, salmonella infections, anemia, eye problems, liver infections and as a remedy for opium addiction.

Plants contain 30-40 mg of vitamin C per 100g, 1.2% protein, 0.3% fat, 2.4% carbohydrates. The leaf dry weight analysis per 100g contains 45g carbohydrates, 28g protein, 22g ash, 5.9g fiber, 4.5g fat and overall provides 265 calories.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Cichorioideae
Tribe: Cichorieae
Subtribe: Hyoseridinae
Genus: Sonchus
Species: Sonchus oleraceus
Varieties: Sonchus oleraceus var. littoralis, Sonchus oleraceus var. oleraceus

Popular Posts

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Alexandrian Laurel (Calophyllum inophyllum)

Alexandrian Laurel ( Calophyllum inophyllum ) is a species of plant in the Calophyllaceae family. It is a low-branching, slow-growing, spreading tree with a wide, irregular crown. It grows up to 30 meters tall, has a cylindrical trunk, and thick, black, and fissured bark. The leaves are thick, oval, with rounded tips, even margins, and a smooth surface. The upper side is dark green and glossy, the underside is bright green, with a central vein in bright green. The leaves are up to 27 cm long, 13 cm wide, and have a 1 cm petiole. Flowers bloom throughout the year, but typically from April to June and October to December. Flowers are 30 mm in diameter and occur in racemose or paniculate inflorescences of four to 15 flowers. The flowers have a sweet aroma and attract numerous pollinating insects. The fruit is round, green, up to 4 cm in diameter, with a large seed in the center. When ripe, the fruit wrinkles and turns yellow to brownish. The fruit is light, with thin, spongy flesh and a...

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...