Jun 142014
Today as I strolled along the Piney Woods Church Road drainage ditch, I glimpsed this yellow flower by the side of the ditch. I later identified it as Goatsbeard, (Tragopogon pratensis). Another immigrant from Europe, it is also called Showy Yellow Goatsbeard to distinguish it from Yellow Goatsbeard (also from Europe). To add further confusion, there are half a dozen other common names routinely applied to one or the other of the two plants, making a very good argument for the benefit of using Latin taxonomic names instead. Goatsbeard earned its common name, I suspect, because of its airy, dandelion-like seed ball, three inches across.
