GENUS 12. CHICORY FAMILY. 313 
12. TRAGOPOGON [Tourn.] L. Sp. Pl. 789. 1753. 
Biennial or perennial, erect usually branched, somewhat succulent herbs, with slender 
fleshy tap-roots, alternate entire linear-lanceolate long-acuminate leaves, clasping at the base, 
and long-peduncled large heads of yellow or purple. flowers, opening in the early morning, 
usually closed by noon. Involucre cylindric or narrowly campanulate, its bracts in I series, 
nearly equal, acuminate, united at the base. Rays truncate and 5-toothed at the apex. Anthers 
sagittate at the base. Style-branches slender. Achenes linear, terete, or 5-angled, 5-10-ribbed, 
terminated by slender beaks, or the outermost beakless. Pappus-bristles in 1 series, plumose, 
connate at the base, the plume-branches interwebbed. [Greek, goats-beard.] 
About 35 species, natives of the Old World. Type species: Tragopogon pratensis L. 
Flowers yellow; involucral bracts equalling or shorter than the rays. 1. T. pratensis. 
Flowers purple; involucral bracts much longer than the rays. 2. T. porrifolius. 
1. Tragopogon praténsis L. Yellow 
Goat’s-beard. Meadow Salsify. 
Fig. 4058. 
Tragopogon pratensis L. Sp. Pl. 789. 1753. 
Stem branched, 14°-3° high. Leaves keeled, 
tapering from the broad, more or less clasping 
base to a very long acuminate tip, the lower 
sometimes 10’ long and 1’ wide; peduncles 
thickened at the top; heads 1-23’ broad; bracts 
of the involucre about 8, lanceolate, acuminate, 
shorter than or equalling (rarely exceeding) 
the yellow rays; marginal achenes striate, 
smooth or roughened. 
In fields and waste places, Nova Scotia to New 
Jersey, Ontario, Ohio, Manitoba and Colorado. 
Naturalized from Europe. June-Oct. Called also 
buck’s-beard, noon-flower, star-of-jerusalem, noon- . 
tide, joseph’s flower, go-to-bed-at-noon. 
2. Tragopogon porrifélius L. Oyster 
Plant. Salsify. Purple Goat’s-beard. 
Fig. 4059. 
Tragopogon porrifolius L. Sp. Pl. 789. 1753. 
Taller, sometimes 43° high. Peduncles very 
much thickened and hollow for I to 3 inches 
below the heads; heads 2’-4’ broad, very showy; 
bracts of the involucre linear-lanceolate, acumi- 
nate, usually much longer than the purple rays; 
achenes sometimes 2’ long, the outer ones covered 
with scale-like tubercles, especially on the ribs 
below. 
In fields and waste places, Ontario to New Jersey, 
Virginia, Minnesota, British Columbia, Nebraska and 
California, mostly escaped from gardens, where it is 
common. Native of Europe. Called also vegetable 
oyster, jerusalem-star, nap-at-noon, oyster-root. Nat- 
uralized as a weed on the Pacific Coast. The 
root is the familiar vegetable known as oyster-plant. 
An apparent hybrid between this and the preceding 
species has been noticed at New Brunswick, N. J. 
June—Oct. 
