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Yellow salsify (Tragopogon dubius)

Yellow salsify Synonyms: Tragopogon dubius ssp. major, Tragopogon major

Common Names: Western goat's beard , goat's beard , salsifis majeur, western salsify, wild oysterplant , yellow goat's beard

Description: Introduced to North America as a garden plant in the early 1900s.

Habit: Annual or biennial, reaching a height of 20-60 cm.

Leaves: Alternate, narrow, 0.4-12 inches long and tapered from base to tip, grass-like. Young leaves can be hairy while mature leaves are waxy.

Stems: Ascending, leafy, sometimes branched with milky latex sap when broken.

Flowers: Occur at the end of stems on inflated peduncles, 2.2 inches in diameter, comprised of only ray flowers, opening early in the day and close by early afternoon.

Fruit and seeds: Achenes, 1-1.6 inches long; attached to large, feathery pappus reaching up to 4 inches in diameter.

Habitat: Native to Europe. Can be found in open forests, woodlands, shrublands, grasslands, roadsides, clearcuts, and pine stands.

Reproduction: By seed or vegetatively.

Monitoring and rapid response: Limiting disturbances may be most successful control method.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the USDA Forest Service.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).


Common Name:

Yellow salsify

Scientific Name:

Tragopogon dubius

Family:

Asteraceae
(Aster)

Duration:

Annual, Biennial

Habit:

Herbs

USDA Symbol:

TRDU