Common Chicory - Cichorium Intybus

These blue/lavender beauties are commonly called blue sailors, chicory, coffeeweed, Common chicory, or succory. They are from the family: Aster (Asteraceae).  They grow in fields, along roadsides and in waste places.

From Wikipedia we learn that various varieties of chicory are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons (blanched buds), or for roots (var. sativum), which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. 

Its use as a coffee additive is very popular in India, parts of Southeast Asia, South Africa and southern United States, particularly in New Orleans (ahhh, memories of Café du Monde abound, no one makes chicory coffee the way they do).

*Thanks to Wikipedia.