COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 533 



flowers open at sunrise and are closed again by noon. Achenes 

 about a third of an inch in length, rough-ribbed, tipped with a 

 wire-like beak, the pappus a funnel-formed parachute of tawny, 

 plumose bristles with downy interlacing branches. (Fig. 368.) 



Means of control 



Destroy by grubbing or hand-pulling when the ground is soft. 

 In view of the fact that its buoyant seeds travel widely and that 

 the plant is perennial if undisturbed, it will pay to take some trouble 

 for its extermination. Land badly infested should be broken up 

 and put under cultivation. 



OYSTER PLANT 

 Tragopbgon porrifdlius, L. 



Other English names: Vegetable Oyster, Garden Salsify, Purple 

 Goat's Beard, Joseph's Flower, Noon-plant, Jerusalem Star. 



Introduced. Biennial or perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : June to September. 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range : Ontario to Minnesota and Nebraska, southward to Georgia ; 

 also naturalized on the Pacific Coast. 



Habitat: Fields, meadows, and waste places. 



An escape from gardens where it has been cultivated for the 

 fleshy, edible taproot, which, when cooked, has a flavor somewhat 

 like oysters. Larger than the preceding species, with stems two to 

 four feet tall, broader leaves, the peduncles dilated and hollowed 

 for a space of two or three inches below the heads, which are purple, 

 often three inches broad, the long, green points of the involucral 

 bracts extending for about half their length beyond the rays, making 

 an eight- to ten-pointed green star with a purple center, whence the 

 name "Jerusalem Star." Achenes brown, fully a half-inch in 

 length, ridged, and tubercled, the slender beak about an inch long, 

 the tawny, funnel -formed, inter- webbed pappus nearly equal in 

 length. The size and weight of the seeds of both this and the 

 preceding species make them very readily removable when they 

 appear as an impurity among other seeds. 



Means of control the same as for the preceding species. 



