After seeing some pictures of chicory, I began noticing little purple flowers all over the place. I found one that I thought was a dead ringer!

Is This Chicory?

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The Whole Plant

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It's getting on in the season, so there aren't many flowers left. A lot of them have already gone to seed and formed little fluff balls. I know that chicory is a relative of the dandelion, so this may be a point for chicory. .

After looking at my photos in more detail, I'm not so sure that it is. The first thing that caught my eye was the edges of the petals. In the pictures I have seen of actual chicory, the edges of each petal are kind of toothed; the flowers in my photos really aren't.

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You can almost see some jagged edges on the petals in my photos, but nothing like the photos that I've seen online.

I also noticed that the plant in my pictures have reddish purple spots on the unopened buds and receptacles that I haven't really seen in other pictures.

A Flower And A Bud

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Can You Help Me Identify This Thing?

So, I'm a bit torn. At first glance, I was positive that I had found chicory; but, I am only recently learning of it, so I am 0% confident in my ability to identify it for sure. If you have any experience, please let me know what you think in the comments. Is it chicory? If not, what is it? Any and all help is appreciated!

* All photos taken by me using Canon Rebel T3; Lens Model: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II unless otherwise credited. Macro shots were taken using a cheap screw on macro adapter; post processing performed using Darktable unless otherwise labeled.

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