Tragopogon porrifolius
Tragopogon
common salsify, oyster plant, purple goat's beard, purple oyster salsify, purple salsify, salsifis cultivé, salsify, vegetable oyster
goat's beard, salsify
1(–5), erect, usually branched proximally, glabrous or tomentulose to floccose [lanate], often glabrescent.
apices straight (not recurved or coiled), faces usually glabrous.
basal and cauline;
sessile;
blades linear to lance-linear or lance-attenuate (grasslike) [lanceolate to oblong], (bases clasping) margins entire (faces glabrous or tomentulose to floccose [lanate], often glabrescent).
distally inflated.
often inflated distally (not in T. pratensis), ebracteate.
conic in bud.
campanulate [cylindric] (at flowering), mostly 10–20+ mm diam.
convex, smooth, glabrous, epaleate.
(30–)50–180+;
corollas yellow or purple (proximally yellow, distally purple in T. mirus) (± deliquescent).
usually [5–7] 8–12 [13–16] in 1 series, linear-lanceolate, triangular-lanceolate [oblong-lanceolate], linear, ± equal, margins white, narrowly pellucid, apices acute (faces glabrous [with intertwining hairs]).
0.
borne singly (terminal).
dark to pale brown, stramineous, whitish, bodies ± fusiform to cylindric, usually beaked, beaks concolorous with, or paler than bodies, abrupt to gradually tapered, 5–10-ribbed (ribs usually muricate, prickly, or scaly), faces usually glabrous, sometimes scaley or muricate;
pappi (usually borne on discs at tips of beaks) persistent, of 12–20+, brownish to whitish, basally connate, ± plumose, subequal to unequal awns or subulate scales, in 1 series (lateral barbs or setulae often ± intertwined).
florets usually shorter than or equaling phyllaries;
corollas purple.
= 6.
= 12.
Tragopogon porrifolius
Tragopogon
Tragopogon porrifolius is occasionally cultivated in Europe and naturalized across much of North America. It grows typically in sites drier than those of T. pratensis and in sites shadier and/or moister than those of T. dubius. As currently circumscribed, it may not be monophyletic, and nomenclatural changes for the populations here may be required. In North America, T. porrifolius hybridizes with both T. dubius and T. pratensis (= T. ×neohybridus Farwell, described from North America, and T. ×mirabilis Rouy, described from Europe).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 100–150 (5, including 2 amphidiploids, in the flora).
Tragopogon is weedy in North America. Allotetraploids T. mirus and T. miscellus are native to the United States. The heads of tragopogons usually open early mornings and close by midday.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Corollas wholly or distally purple (to brownish purple in T. mirus); leaf apices straight | → 2 |
1. Corollas yellow; leaf apices straight or recurved to coiled | → 3 |
2. Leaf faces usually glabrous; corollas wholly purple (2n = 12) | T. porrifolius |
2. Leaf faces initially tomentulose to floccose, soon glabrescent; corollas each proximally yellowish, distally purple to brownish purple (2n = 24) | T. mirus |
3. Leaf apices usually recurved to coiled; peduncles usually little, if at all, inflated (at flowering); involucres urceolate in bud; outer florets equaling or surpassing phyllaries (2n = 12) | T. pratensis |
3. Leaf apices straight or recurved to coiled; peduncles distally inflated; involucres conic to urceolate in bud; outer florets usually not surpassing phyllaries (2n = 12 or 24) | → 4 |
4. Leaf apices usually straight (not recurved to coiled); outer florets usually much shorter than phyllaries (2n = 12) | T. dubius |
4. Leaf apices usually recurved to coiled; outer florets usually slightly shorter than phyllaries (equaling or surpassing phyllaries in population from Pullman, Washington; 2n = 24) | T. miscellus |
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