What coffee substitute was used to tell time?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

April 25, 2002

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Chicory (Cichorium intybus Linnaeus) [sic kor' ee um in tib' us] is native to southern Eurasia, the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. The plant is now cosmopolitan. Chicory's medicinal uses date back to ancient Egypt. It is thought to have been among the "bitter herbs" of the Old Testament. The leaves were served as a vegetable in Rome. Arabic physicians esteemed chicory; they maintained and increased herbal knowledge through
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the Dark Ages.

There are basically two forms of cultivated chicory. The root grown as a coffee substitute or additive is raised from seed and harvested in the fall. The root is roasted and ground.

The witloof or barbe-de-capuchin is grown for the leaves. The plants are field-grown and dug in the fall. The leaves are removed and the roots trimmed. The roots are then planted in a bed of sand and covered with another eight inches of sand. The leaves grow in the absence of light. This forcing produces a "blanched head" (leaves lacking green chlorophyll) free of the bitterness found in light-grown chicory.

Chicory had another use we seldom think of today. The flowers served as a time piece. Linnaeus noted that in Upsala, Sweden, chicory flowers opened at 5 a.m. and closed by 10 a.m. Mrs. Grieve noted that in England, the flowers opened between 6 and 7 a.m. and closed by noon.

The University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service has an information page on the cultivated forms of chicory. To view the cultivated witloof and chicory roots, click on the link:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_MV047

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