Tragopogon orientalis

Tragopogon orientalis, the eastern goat's-beard or eastern salsify, is a biennial herb in the family Asteraceae native to central and eastern Europe and western Asia, where it grows in mesic mountain meadows, damp grasslands, and grassy verges, with introductions to parts of North America. It is closely related to the more widespread Tragopogon pratensis (meadow goat's-beard) and is sometimes treated as a subspecies of it, differing principally in its slightly larger flower heads in which the bright yellow ligulate ray florets clearly equal or exceed the green involucral bracts in length (whereas in T. pratensis s.s. the bracts equal or exceed the rays). The plant arises from a fleshy taproot and produces a basal rosette of grass-like leaves in the first year and a stout glaucous flowering stem 30-90 cm tall in the second year. Leaves are alternate, long-linear, 15-30 cm long and 0.5-1.5 cm wide, glaucous, parallel-veined, entire-margined, and slightly clasping at the base. The flower head is solitary at the stem apex, 4-7 cm across when fully open, with numerous strap-shaped golden-yellow ray florets surrounded by 8-13 lanceolate green bracts that form a star at the base of the head. The head develops into a large spherical pappus-ball of plumose silver-white parachutes carrying the long-beaked achenes.