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flixton

By Flixton

United Kingdom

The attached plant has appeared in my garden. It's about 1m high, has silvery green foliage and purple flowers. The flowers close up in the evening and turn into quite large dandilions when finished. The seeds are very feathery with about 1cm of seed on the bottom. Do you have any idea what it could be?

Thanks

Tracy




Answers

 

it is a british native [wildflower] with the local name jack go to bed but the botanical name escapes me at the moment.

4 Jul, 2011

 

Google tells me that "Jack go to bed at noon" is a native salsify, but it has yellow flowers. I don't think it's that, Seaburngirl.

4 Jul, 2011

 

thats the problems with common names Beattie :)

thats all I have ever known it as.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://gotitfirst.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/salsify.jpg&imgrefurl=http://gotitfirst.net/salsify-starts-blooming-at-the-end-of-april/516/&usg=__yoO1wljfT65uwXeyHxYV5Go1C-c=&h=599&w=429&sz=87&hl=en&start=5&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=HLQdSCOD2yb4WM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=97&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsalsify%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26tbm%3Disch&ei=hA0STtaiNsSr8AOYpK2aDg

sorry about the long http. this shows a purple form of salsify.

4 Jul, 2011

 

*salutes Seaburngirl* !
Darned right! Well done Seaburngirl - you're correct :-)

4 Jul, 2011

 

on further searching of grey cells and an old dried flower collection it is Salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius. an escapee from cultivation according to the research I did back in 1975. my reference book was Keeble Martin 'the concise British Flora in colour'.

so not the native I first thought so nearly correct :o)

4 Jul, 2011

 

In the USA, we call it Goat's Beard, after the seed heads.

4 Jul, 2011

 

there are 2 native yellow ones, one is Goat's beard and the other smaller species 'lesser goats beard'.

5 Jul, 2011

 

Thanks to everyone. Having looked at the pictures of your suggested plants its definitely the Salsify Tragopogon. Thanks for the super quick responses and the excellent guesses from my very unscientific description.

5 Jul, 2011

How do I say thanks?

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