TUSSILAGO F A R F A R A C OLT’S-FOOT. 
Class XIX. SYNGENESIA. — Order II. POLYGAMIA. 
Natural Order, COMPOSITE RADIATE. 
Fig. (a) represents a floret of the ray with the bifid pistil; (6) a floret of the disc, both slightly magnified; (c) the fruit, which is 
an achenopsis, with its pappus or down ; (d) a floret of the disc, much magnified and spread ; ; showing the situation of the pistil, with 
the five united anthers, and the insertion of the filaments into the tube of the corolla. The stem on the right exhibits the situation of 
the fruits, with their hairy crowns, and part of the naked receptacle from whence they have been removed. 
Colt’s-foot is one of the most common of our native plants, being found in profusion in most parts of the 
kingdom and throughout Europe ; growing in moist, shady situations, especially on a chalky or marly soil, 
in waste places, on the banks of rivers, and in gardens, where it frequently proves a very troublesome weed. 
The clayey parts of the pestilential maremmes of Tuscany, where scarcely any other plants will grow, are 
covered with common colt’s-foot. It is a perennial, flowering from the middle of March to the end of April, 
but the leaves do not appear in full luxuriance till the month of May. The name Tussilago is derived from 
tussis and ago, in allusion to its pectoral powers, and Farfara, from the resemblance its leaves bear to those 
of the white poplar, called by the Greeks, Farfarus. 
The root is very long, frequently penetrating to the depth of several feet, and sending out many slender 
fibres, which creep horizontally. The scape, or flower stem, appears before the leaves ; it is erect, slender, 
round, woolly, slightly furrowed, six or eight inches high, and clothed with numerous lanceolate scales. 
Several stems generally issue from the same root, each supporting a single flower about an inch in diameter, 
and of a bright yellow colour. The colour of the stem, as well as the scales, varies from pale green to red- 
dish brown. The leaves are radical, cordate, on channelled footstalks, slightly lobed, and toothed ; smooth 
above with reddish veins, but white and woolly underneath : when young the leaves are revolute, and covered 
with a cottony down, which easily wipes off. The scales of the involucrum are lanceolate-linear, equal to 
the length of the disc ; erect at first, but afterwards become reflexed. The inflorescence is compound ; the 
florets of the ray are ligulate and very numerous, always fertile, and twice the length of those of the disc, 
which are few in number and often barren ; the central florets are tubular, with five equal segments. The 
achenopsides are smooth, oblong, compressed, and the seeds often abortive. The pappus is pilose, silvery, 
sessile, and permanent. The receptacle is naked, flat at first, but afterwards becomes convex. 
The beautiful wing-like pappus with which the seeds are so plentifully provided, renders Colt’s-foot 
peculiarly a plant of passage, and no sooner is a fit soil exposed, than it becomes covered with young plants 
of Colt’s-foot, although none may have previously been growing within many miles. This has led some- 
times to the ignorant belief, that this plant is generated spontaneously by clayey soils, the facility with which 
it seeds are transported either not being known, or not being duly considered. It is, however, one of many 
such admirable provisions of nature, that plants with long penetrating roots, such as thistle, colt’s-foot, &c., 
should be furnished with ready means of migration, and that they should flourish chiefly in clay-bound soils, 
which they thus, by their burrowing roots, perforate and drain. 
Qualities. — The root is mucilaginous and bitterish ; the leaves are inodorous, and have a rough sub- 
viscid taste like that of artichokes. “ The mucus they contain is yielded to water by decoction, and evolves, 
by boiling, a peculiar odour.” 
