How to Grow and Care for Salsifies

The yellow salsify is a wildflower that can be considered an invasive weed in some areas. Its bright yellow flowers close at night and open in daylight. Once those flowers transition to seeds, they resemble large dandelion heads.

Yellow goat's beard (Tragopogon pratensis) is a common flowering plant growing throughout Europe and North America along roadsides and fields. Yellow goat's beard is also commonly called showy-goats-beard. Parts of this plant can be used to make salads and bubblegum.

Common salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius) is an edible flower and root native to Europe and Africa. Common salsify is also called the oyster plant and the vegetable oyster. This plant can be grown alongside parsnips and carrots and requires the same type of planting and growing conditions.

Eastern goat's-beard is a flowering plant native to Eurasia. It can be easily identified by its golden yellow petals. It blooms in late spring and early summer, but its flowers can only be seen open in the mornings.

Tragopogon angustifolius is distinguished by its slender leaves and grass-like appearance, often mistaken for a wispy tuft of grass until its striking yellow daisy-like flowers bloom. Thriving in well-drained soils under full sun, tragopogon angustifolius adapts to open fields and meadows, its deep taproot allowing survival in drier conditions. The plant's stature, with flowering stems reaching heights of up to 90 cm, marks its presence in the landscape, especially when seed heads transform into a dandelion-like puffball distributing seeds through wind dispersal.