Arctium

Taxonomy

In 1753, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus established genus Arctium by recognizing two species: Arctium lappa and Arctium personata. The type specimen Arctium lappa was collected from a cultivated waste area in Europe ("habitat in Europae cultis ruderatis"). As of August 2025, the name Arctium personata is a synonym for Carduus personata.

A large number of species have been placed in genus Arctium at one time or another, but most of them are now classified in the related genus Cousinia. The precise limits between Arctium and Cousinia are hard to define; there is an exact relation between their molecular phylogeny. The burdocks are sometimes confused with the cockleburs (genus Xanthium) and rhubarb (genus Rheum).

Accepted species

The following species are accepted:

• Arctium abolinii (Kult. ex Tscherneva) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium alberti (Regel & Schmalh.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium × ambiguum (Celak.) Nyman
• Arctium amplissimum Kuntze
• Arctium anomalum Kuntze
• Arctium arctiodes Kuntze
• Arctium atlanticum (Pomel) H.Lindb. – Algeria, Morocco
• Arctium aureum Kuntze
• Arctium chloranthum (Kult.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium dolichophyllum (Kult.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium × dualis (Juz.) Duist.
• Arctium echinopifolium (Bornm.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium egregium (Juz.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium elatum (Boiss. & Buhse) Kuntze
• Arctium evidens (Tscherneva) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium fedtschenkoanum (Bornm.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium grandifolium (Kult.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium haesitabundum (Juz.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium horrescens (Juz.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium karatavicum Kuntze
• Arctium korolkowii Kuntze
• Arctium korshinskyi (C.Winkl.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium lappa L. – greater burdock – much of Eurasia; naturalized in North America, Australia and New Zealand
• Arctium lappaceum (Schrenk) Kuntze
• Arctium × leiobardanum Juz. & C.Serg. ex Stepanov – Siberia
• Arctium leiospermum Juz. & Ye.V.Serg.
• Arctium × maassii Rouy
• Arctium macilentum (C.Winkl.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium medians (Juz.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium minus (Hill) Bernh. – lesser burdock – Europe and southwestern Asia; naturalized in North and South America, Australia and New Zealand
• Arctium × mixtum (Simonk.) Nyman
• Arctium nemorosum Lej.
• Arctium nidulans (Regel) Sennikov
• Arctium × nothum (Ruhmer) J.Weiss – central and eastern Europe
• Arctium palladinii (Marcow.) R.E.Fr. & Soderb. – Turkey, Iran, Caucasus
• Arctium pallidivirens (Kult.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium pentacanthoides (Juz. ex Tscherneva) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium pentacanthum (Regel & Schmalh.) Kuntze
• Arctium pseudarctium (Bornm.) Duist. – Afghanistan, Tajikistan
• Arctium pterolepidum (Kult.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium radula Juz. & Ye.V.Serg.
• Arctium refractum (Bornm.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium sardaimionense Rassulova & B.A.Sharipova – Tajikistan
• Arctium schmalhausenii Kuntze
• Arctium × semiconstrictum Duist.
• Arctium tomentellum (C.Winkl.) Kuntze
• Arctium tomentosum Mill. – woolly burdock – northern and eastern Europe, Turkey, Iran, Caucasus, Siberia, Xinjiang; naturalized in North America
• Arctium triflorum Kuntze
• Arctium ugamense (Karmysch.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium umbrosum (Bunge) Kuntze
• Arctium vavilovii (Kult.) S.López, Romasch., Susanna & N.Garcia
• Arctium × zalewskii (Dybowski.) Arènes

Botanists disagree about the number of taxa introduced into North America but most authorities accept at least the following three species: Arctium lappa, Arctium minus, and Arctium tomentosum. The influential Flora of North America and others accept only those three species. In addition to three species, some authorities accept one or more hybrids. The United States Department of Agriculture accepts a fourth species, Arctium vulgare.

Etymology

Circa 16th century, from bur + dock, the latter meaning sorrel of the genus Rumex.

Distribution and habitat

All Arctium species are native to Europe and/or Asia but several species have been widely introduced. In Eurasia, native Arctium species range from Greenland to Siberia in the north, and from Macaronesia to Peninsular Malaysia in the south. Two species are native to China.

Arctium species have been introduced on four continents: Asia, Australia, North America, and South America. Two species have been introduced to New Zealand.

Ecology

The roots of burdock, among other plants, are eaten by the larva of the ghost moth (Hepialus humuli). The plant is used as a food plant by other Lepidoptera including brown-tail, Coleophora paripennella, Coleophora peribenanderi, the Gothic, lime-speck pug and scalloped hazel.

The prickly heads of burdock (burs) are noted for easily catching on to fur and clothing. Thus the bur is an excellent mechanism for seed dispersal. In England, some birdwatchers have reported that birds have become entangled in the burs leading to a slow death, as they are unable to free themselves.

Toxicity

The green, above-ground portions may cause contact dermatitis in individual with allergies as the plant contains lactones.

Uses

Food and drink

The taproot of young burdock plants can be harvested and eaten as a root vegetable. While generally out of favour in modern European cuisine, it is popular in East Asia. Arctium lappa is known as niúbàng (牛蒡) in Chinese, the same name having been borrowed into Japanese as gobō, and is eaten in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. In Korean, burdock root is called u-eong (우엉) and sold as tong u-eong (통우엉), or "whole burdock". Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow up to about one metre long and two centimetres across. Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, or pungent flavour with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienned or shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes. The roots have been used as potato substitutes in Russia.

Stems and immature flower stalks may also be harvested in late spring, before flowers appear; their taste resembles that of artichoke, to which the burdock is related. The stems and stalks are thoroughly peeled, and either eaten raw, or boiled in salt water.

Sicilian immigrants to North America, unable to find carduni (cardoon), substitute burdock stalks. In the US, burdock is sold commercially as cardoon, and is seldom found in conventional grocery stores, but it is available in supermarkets that cater to largely Sicilian and European neighborhoods in the mid Atlantic states, as well as some farmers' markets in the months of May, June, and July. The main root can also be boiled and served cold.

Burdock can also be found in its "wild" state, on the banks of streams and rivers, and even drainage ditches on the sides of roads or railroad tracks in rural areas. These plants look little like the cultivated variety found in stores. They have many thin stems with broad leaves at their ends. There is a reddish color on the stems, which grow tough, hollow and inedible as they age. The wild ones are picked in the spring and early summer. To use them, the leafy part should be removed, and the stems cleaned of "stringy" fibers. The stems are traditionally served egg-battered and fried, as froscia at St. Joseph's Day altars in Sicilian American enclaves in cities like New Orleans and Buffalo.

Connoisseurs of the plant often have secret sites where they pick the burdock, many taking the location of their cache to their graves.

Leaves are also eaten in spring in Japan when the plant is young and leaves are soft. Some A. lappa cultivars are specialized for this purpose. A popular Japanese dish is kinpira gobō (金平牛蒡), julienned or shredded burdock root and carrot, braised with soy sauce, sugar, mirin and/or sake, and sesame oil. Another is burdock makizushi (sushi filled with pickled burdock root; the burdock root is often artificially coloured orange to resemble a carrot).

In the second half of the 20th century, burdock achieved international recognition for its culinary use due to the increasing popularity of the macrobiotic diet, which advocates its consumption. It contains a fair amount of dietary fiber (GDF, 6 g per 100 g), calcium, potassium, and amino acids, and is low in calories. It contains the prebiotic fiber inulin. It contains a polyphenol oxidase, which causes its darkened surface and muddy harshness by forming tannin-iron complexes. Burdock root's harshness harmonizes well with pork in miso soup (tonjiru) and with Japanese-style pilaf (takikomi gohan).

Dandelion and burdock is a soft drink that has long been popular in the United Kingdom; it has its origins in hedgerow mead commonly drunk in the mediæval period. Burdock is believed to be a galactagogue, a substance that increases lactation, but it is sometimes recommended to be avoided during pregnancy based on animal studies that show components of burdock to cause uterus stimulation.

In Europe, burdock root was used as a bittering agent in beer before the widespread adoption of hops for this purpose.

Traditional medicine

The seeds of A. lappa are used in traditional Chinese medicine under the name niubangzi (Chinese: 牛蒡子; pinyin: niúbángzi; some dictionaries list the Chinese as just Chinese: 牛蒡; pinyin: niúbàng).

Burdock is a traditional medicinal herb used for many ailments. Burdock root oil extract, also called bur oil, is used in Europe as a scalp treatment.

In culture

Black from dust but still alive and red in the center. It reminded me of Hadji Murad. It makes me want to write. It asserts life to the end, and alone in the midst of the whole field, somehow or other had asserted it.

— Russian author Leo Tolstoy, in his journal (July, 1896) of a tiny shoot of burdock he saw in a ploughed field

In Turkish Anatolia, the burdock plant was believed to ward off the evil eye, and as such is often a motif appearing woven into kilims for protection. With its many flowers, the plant also symbolizes abundance. Before and during World War II, Japanese soldiers were issued a 15-1/2-inch bayonet held in a black-painted scabbard, the juken. Their nickname was the burdock sword (gobo ken).

Mary Palmer's mid 18th century Devonshire Dialogue records the burrs of the plant being known in Devon, England, as "bachelor's-buttons".

The English folk artist Nancy Kerr refers to "The Land of Santa Georgia where the Banks of Burdocks Grow" in her song Santa Georgia, supposedly representing the relationship between country and city in modern England (especially Sheffield).

Burdock Everdeen from the Hunger Games is named after this plant.

Inspiration for velcro

After taking his dog for a walk one day in the late 1940s (1948), George de Mestral, a Swiss inventor, became curious about the seeds of the burdock plant that had attached themselves to his clothes and to the dog's fur. Under a microscope, he looked closely at the hook system that the seeds use to hitchhike on passing animals aiding seed dispersal, and he realized that the same approach could be used to join other things together. His work led to the development of the hook and loop fastener, which was initially sold under the Velcro brand name.

Serbo-Croatian uses the same word, čičak, for burdock and velcro; Turkish does the same with the name pitrak, while in the Polish language rzep means both "burr" and "velcro". The German word for burdock is Klette and velcro is Klettverschluss (= burdock fastener). In Norwegian burdock is borre and velcro borrelås, which translates to "burdock lock".