code: 1010
known as “showy goat’s beard” or “Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon”
Family: Compositae
Common name: Meadow Salsify
Plant Classification: Hardy perennial
Minimum Height: 60 cm
Maximum Height: 90 cm
“Meadow salsify” is also known as “showy goat’s beard” or “Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon”. (this is roughly when the small yellow flowers close and the previous day’s enormous and impressive, apple-sized, “dandelion clock” opens from huge ripe buds.)
Sowing advice:
For best results, sow seeds immediately onto a good soil-based compost. Cover the seeds with fine grit or compost to approximately their own depth. They can be sown at any time, and germination can sometimes be quicker if kept at 15 to 20 degrees C. However, we sow most seeds in an unheated greenhouse and wait for natural germination as many seeds have built-in dormancy mechanisms, and often wait for spring before emerging regardless of when they are sown. But spring sowing will obviously give them a full season of growth if successful germination occurs.
Flower:
Solitary flower at the top of the stem and at the end of the few branching stems. Flowers are 1 to 2½ inches across with many yellow dandelion-type ray flowers (petals). The 8 (occasionally more) green bracts that surround the flower are as long as or shorter than the petals.
The stem just below the receptacle may be slightly inflated when the plant is fruiting, but not when flowering. The flowers open on sunny mornings and close by noon. The closed flowers resemble a thin pod.
Leaves and stem:
Leaves are grass-like blades, to ¾ inch wide at the base and up to 1 foot long becoming smaller as they ascend the stem, toothless, generally smooth, almost waxy though may have very fine, sparse hairs when young, Leaves abruptly narrow near the base then gradually taper to a pointed tip, and clasp the stem. Leaves are usually coiled or curved at the tip, often in tight curls on upper leaves. Stems are smooth, green or with a whitish cast, may branch near the base of the plant or have multiple flowering stems.
Fruit:
Fruit is a giant dandelion-type plume about 3 inches across; the brown seed has a tuft of whitish hairs to carry them off in the wind.
Notes:
Meadow Goat’s Beard is very similar in appearance to Yellow Goat’s-beard, Tragopogon dubius, and found in similar habitats but is not as common in Minnesota as T. dubius. T. pratensis can be distinguished by deeper yellow flowers, the narrower stem just below the receptacle, bracts not extending beyond the rays, and the curling of leaf blade tips.
