Vegetable-oyster

Tragopogon porrifolius, the salsify, vegetable-oyster, or purple goat's-beard, is an erect biennial (occasionally annual) herb in the family Asteraceae native to the Mediterranean basin and southwestern Asia and widely cultivated in temperate climates for its long edible taproot; the plant is now also naturalized as a roadside escape across much of Europe, North America, and elsewhere. The plant arises from a thick fleshy white taproot 20-30 cm long and 2-4 cm across, with white milky latex that flows freely when any part is cut. In the first year it produces a basal rosette of long narrow grass-like glaucous leaves 15-30 cm long, sometimes with a slightly clasping base. In the second year it sends up a stout glaucous flowering stem 60-120 cm tall, sparsely branched, with reduced linear-lanceolate clasping cauline leaves. The flower head is solitary, terminal, 4-6 cm across, with numerous strap-shaped ligulate ray florets of a striking deep dull-purple to dull-violet colour (a feature distinguishing salsify from the yellow-flowered Tragopogon pratensis), surrounded by a single row of 8 long narrow green bracts that conspicuously exceed the ray florets. After flowering the head develops into a globose pappus-ball 8-12 cm across of plumose silvery-white parachutes, dispersing the long beaked achenes.