خرفيش / خرفيش الجمل /

Milk Thistle / السلبين المريمي / سنارية / سناريه / شَوك مريم / مرار /

Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.

Edibility and usage

Edibility
Edible
Edible part
  • Flower buds
  • Leaves
  • Roots
  • Stems
Preparation
  • Cooked with olive oil
  • Salads
Blooming period
March to May
Foraging period
January
Seed collection period
May to July
Potential medicinal uses
  • Hepatic
  • Vulnerary

Description

Perenniality
Annual
Petal colour
  • Crimson
  • White
Leaf type
  • Entire
Life form
  • Annual

Scientifc data

Genus
Silybum
Family
Asteraceae
Wikidata item
Q193798
GBIF Item
Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. (3145214)
Conservation status (IUCN)
Least concern

References

  1. Edible Wild Food. Silybum marianum (2022, June 08).
  2. Mdpi. Mediterranean Wild Edible Plants: Weeds or “New Functional Crops”?. (2021, November 20).
  3. Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2022-08-31. <temperate.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Silybum+marianum>
  4. Houri, A., Machaka Houri, N. (2001). photographic guide to wild flowers of Lebanon. Beirut: Chemaly & Chemaly.(English and Arabic)
  5. Temple, Augusta A. Flowers & Trees of Palestine. Society for promoting Christian knowledge, 1929.
  6. Crowfoot, Grace Mary Hood. From Cedar to Hyssop; a Study in the Folklore of Plants in Palestine. London, Sheldon Press; New York and Toronto, The Macmillan Co., 1932.
  7. Ali-Shtayeh, Mohammed S., Rana M. Jamous, Jehan H. Al-Shafie’, Wafa’ A. Elgharabah, Fatemah A. Kherfan, Kifayeh H. Qarariah, Isra’ S. Khdair, et al. “Traditional Knowledge of Wild Edible Plants Used in Palestine (Northern West Bank): A Comparative Study.”
  8. Zohary, Michael. Flora Palaestina. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1972.
  9. Hinnawi, Nadeen Sadeq Abdullah. “An Ethnobotanical Study of Wild Edible Plants in the Northern West Bank,” 2010.
  10. Licata, Mario, Teresa Tuttolomondo, Claudio Leto, Giuseppe Virga, Giuseppe Bonsangue, Ignazio Cammalleri, Maria Gennaro, and Salvatore La Bella. “A Survey of Wild Plant Species for Food Use in Sicily (Italy).” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 12
  11. de Cortes Sánchez-Mata, M., & Tardío, J. (Eds.). (2016). Mediterranean wild edible plants: ethnobotany and food composition tables. Springer.

Citation

Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. in Barari platform (2026). Barari Flora Taxonomy. https://barari.org/species/633 accessed via barari.org on 2/19/2026.

BARARI is an open science platform to responsibly share community-based knowledge about wild food plants.
Creative Commons License Barari content is under CC-BY license.