Bronze-flowered goat's-beard

Tragopogon crocifolius, the bronze-flowered or saffron-leaved goat's-beard, is a slender biennial or short-lived perennial herb of the Asteraceae native to the central and eastern Mediterranean, from Italy through the Balkans, the Aegean, and Anatolia. Plants form a slender taproot and reach 30–80 cm, with simple or sparingly branched, glaucous, glabrous stems that exude white latex when cut. Leaves are alternate, sessile, narrowly linear, grass-like, 10–30 cm long and 2–6 mm wide, parallel-veined, with a half-clasping base; the lower leaves resemble crocus or saffron foliage (giving the epithet). Solitary heads are borne at the stem tips on slightly thickened peduncles; the involucre is cylindrical-campanulate with 8 lance-attenuate phyllaries 2–3 cm long, equal to or shorter than the rays. Florets are all ligulate (no disc), purplish-brown, bronze, or violet, fading to dull yellow, with characteristic dark anther tubes. Achenes are slender, ribbed, narrowed into a long beak crowned by a pappus of plumose, interwoven, off-white bristles forming the familiar large 'dandelion-clock'.