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oyster plant, purple salsify

hybrid goatsbeard

Habit Glabrous biennial, 4-10 dm. tall, often branched, with milky juice.
Leaves

Leaves elongate, up to 30 cm. long and 2 cm. wide, tapering gradually from the base.

Flowers

Heads solitary at the ends of branches, the peduncles enlarged and hollow under the heads;

involucral bracts in a single series, equal, 5-11, 2.5-4 cm. long in flower, distinctly surpassing the purple, ligulate corollas, elongating to 4-7 cm. in fruit;

pappus of a single series of whitish, uneven-length, plumose bristles, the plume branches interwebbed.

Fruits

Achenes stout, 2.5-4 cm. long, the body 10-16 mm. long, abruptly contracted to the long, slender beak.

Tragopogon porrifolius

Tragopogon miscellus

Flowering time April-August May-June
Habitat Roadsides, fields and waste places, usually where moist. Fields, roadsides, and other disturbed, open areas.
Distribution
Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east across North America to the Atlantic Coast.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in eastern Washington; eastern Washington and adjacent Idaho, Wyoming, and Arizona.
[BONAP county map]
Origin Introduced from Europe Native
Conservation status Not of concern Not of concern
Sibling taxa
T. dubius, T. floccosus, T. mirus, T. miscellus, T. pratensis
T. dubius, T. floccosus, T. mirus, T. porrifolius, T. pratensis
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