Aster family - chicory and dandelion

Chicory is sometimes sold as Italian Dandelion
Dandelion or French Dandelion

Aspects: Clumping herbs, edible greens, full sun, moist-well-drained soil

Leaves have rich, nutty, slightly bitter flavor; highly nutritious; tasty cooked or in salads; d to make coffee-like beverage roots

Both grow in virtually any soil but flavor will improve with the quality of the soil; full sun or light shade

Deep taproots accumulate minerals from the subsoil; as their leaves decompose the enrich the soil from the surrounding plants

Harvest leaves before the plant flowers; cut back stalks to prolong the harvest season

Chicory can be an annual, a biennial, or a perennial; related to the biennial cultivated edible C. endive, which includes radicchio and endive

Perennial varieties:
Cerolio (with tight dark rosettes)
Dentarella or Italian Dandelion (with green leaves resembling a large dandelion)
Grumolo (small with green leaves)
Italo Rossico or Red Rib Dandelion (potentially long-lived, resembling a dandelion with deep red mid-ribs)
Puntarella (bred for its thick, succulent, contorted stems)
Rosssa di Treviso (long leaves turn red with cold weather)
Rossa di Verona (similar to Rossa di Treviso with smaller leaves)
Spadona (long rounded leaves like elongated spinach)

Danedelion, unlike chicory, is reliably perennial and low maintenance.

Perennial Vegetables author believes both species have improved flavor if leaves are blanched (covered with mulch) first; flowers are sometimes battered and used to make fritters.