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Research note 015 — 2026-08-31 (expanded 2026-09-08)

The Names of Wild-Greens Dishes Do Not Point to One Plant

When gathering the bitterness of wild greens, mistaking a dish name for a plant name breaks the map. So this note keeps plant, edible part, regional name, dish name, and pretreatment apart from one another.

What this page establishes

• The single word horta does not point to one plant species; one survey has confirmed it bundles together 55 species of wild leafy greens.
• Most of the gathered wild leafy greens were classified as bitter by residents themselves, and one survey records that the breakdown spans multiple families, including Asteraceae and Brassicaceae.
• Within the single plant name yomogi, a compound about 50 times more bitter than caffeine and a major compound with no confirmed bitterness have been shown, in one study, to coexist.
• Even inside a single dish name, how bitterness shows up can vary — shown by at least one tasting record.

Japan's candidates: only dishes with their own corroboration get their own entry

Tsuwabuki was connected to Miyazaki Prefecture's oil stir-fry, ashitaba to tempura and the like in the Izu Islands, akebi peel to the pork-and-mushroom miso topping published by the Forestry Agency, and yomogi to the Tateyama Town kanmochi variation. The existing candidates 「ツワブキ佃煮」 (in translation: "tsuwabuki tsukudani," tsuwabuki simmered down in soy sauce), 「ヨモギ汁」 (in translation: "yomogi soup"), and 「アケビ皮の味噌炒め」 (in translation: "akebi peel miso stir-fry") — though similar — have not been upgraded on the same evidence.

In akebi with pork-and-mushroom miso, how bitterness shows up varies even inside a single dish name. An article recording a dinner in Okura Village divides the akebi dishes served at the same table into ones with no perceived bitterness and ones felt to be faintly bitter and distinctly akebi-like. This is a single writer's tasting description, not a measurement by a trained sensory panel — but even among the Japan-side candidates, a dish name does not promise uniform bitterness.

The name yomogi does not fix the bearer of bitterness to just one compound

The plant name yomogi is not uniform once you look inside it either. A study that fractionated the aerial parts of Artemisia princeps and tracked down the strongly bitter fraction records, within the scope of its abstract, that it isolated 2 sesquiterpene compounds. These 2 compounds are recorded as about 50 times more bitter than caffeine, showing bitterness comparable to quinine hydrochloride. Details such as absolute concentration and panel size cannot be confirmed from the abstract's description alone.

Meanwhile, the same abstract states that eupatilin and jaceosidin, known as the same plant's major bioactive components, showed no bitterness at all. Under the single plant name yomogi, a strongly bitter compound and a major compound with no bitterness coexist. Just as a dish name bundles together multiple plants, a plant's name, too, does not guarantee uniform bitterness.

Horta is not a single leaf

An ethnobotanical survey in central Crete recorded 55 wild leafy greens from 31 interviews. Horta is not a single plant but a category that bundles together the knowledge of place, season, and forager. Rather than treating the boiled dish as a fixed recipe, it is kept here as a culinary framework whose combination of plants varies.

There is also a survey that looked, in proportions, at what the name horta bundles together. A separate ethnobotanical survey conducted on Ikaria Island in the Aegean Sea recorded 56 taxa of wild leafy greens (chorta) from 31 interviews with residents, and identified 55 species. Most of the gathered greens were described as bitter, and 31% of these belonged to Asteraceae or Brassicaceae. Narrowing to the most frequently named greens, the share of these two families rises to 50%. This classification is based on residents' own self-reports, not a measurement by a sensory panel.

Looking at the breakdown by genus, these two families are not uniform. Most of the reported species split between bitter Asteraceae (14 genera) and Brassicaceae (3 genera), which carries both pungency and bitterness. Horta does not fit into one plant, let alone one family — it places multiple genera with different kinds of bitterness under the same dish name.

Stamnagathi is one identifiable species

Stamnagathi, by contrast, can be connected in the literature to Cichorium spinosum. There are records of the bitter leaf being boiled or eaten in salads. However, that description comes from the background literature of cultivation research, not a sensory-panel measurement.

Olive leaf moves bitterness and astringency together

For olive leaf extract, bitterness thresholds were measured by a trained panel, and masking by sugars was also compared. In a separate infusion study, the stronger the crushing, the more oleuropein transferred, strengthening not only bitterness but also astringency. Rather than folding these into one 「濃い味」 (in translation: "a strong, concentrated taste"), they are kept here as two separate sensory axes.

Frequently asked

What does horta refer to?

Horta (chorta) is a word for wild leafy-green dishes eaten around the Mediterranean; it does not point to a single plant species. An ethnobotanical survey in central Crete recorded 55 species of wild leafy greens from 31 interviews, and shows that the single word horta refers to all of them together. At the other survey site, Ikaria Island, 55 of 56 taxa were identified, and residents' self-reports classified most as bitter, though the breakdown spanned multiple families including Asteraceae and Brassicaceae. In other words, the name horta is used as a bundled category whose contents change by place, season, and forager.

Is yomogi a bitter plant?

A study that fractionated the aerial parts of yomogi (Artemisia princeps) reports that 2 sesquiterpene compounds were isolated from the strongly bitter fraction, and that these showed bitterness about 50 times stronger than caffeine, comparable to quinine hydrochloride. Meanwhile, the same source records that no bitterness was confirmed for eupatilin and jaceosidin, widely known as the plant's major components. In other words, within the single plant name yomogi, a strongly bitter compound and a major compound with no bitterness coexist. How much each compound actually contributes in an actual dish has not been confirmed within the scope of this abstract.

What is not known

• No source comparing the actual bitterness of horta or stamnagathi using a single, unified sensory panel was found in this ledger. The Ikaria Island and Crete surveys remain classifications based on residents' own self-reports.
• How much yomogi's 2 bitter compounds actually contribute to bitterness in a dish made with yomogi has not been confirmed within the scope of this abstract.
• The description that how bitterness shows up in akebi dishes varies dish by dish remains a single writer's tasting record, not a result confirmed by a multi-person panel.
• No source measuring the relationship between olive leaf's oleuropein content and bitterness/astringency in connection with the taste of the leaf as food was found in this ledger.

Related: How Bitterness, Astringency, and Egumi Differ / Ingredient encyclopedia