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Ask the Expert: What is the name of this flower? Tragopogon dubius
Yellow Goat's Beard
I have this plant in my garden. It just appeared there early this year and it only blooms in the early morning. It is beautiful and I would like to know the name.
Thank you, Mini
Plant Expert Reply:
This wildflower is called Yellow Goat’s Beard (Tragopogon dubius). It is often found in fields, meadows, waste ground, roadsides, railroads and blooms April through July.
This is a WEED!!! I live in Nebraska, and was raised in Wyoming, it’s considered a weed, and spreads just like a dandilion!! Get Rid of it!!
Jas
This is a WEED KILLL IT!! Tear the head off throw away and spray the rest…. The head will continue to bloom and seed if you just drop it on the ground!
True, it is a weed, but it is NOT as pervasive as dandelion. The seed heads contain far far fewer seeds, and my experience, as I raise them for the finches, is that only the seeds from the outside ray flowers are fertile (they are heavily ribbed and darker and only about a dozen, the center seeds, comprising the majority, are smooth and straw colored and infertile or too weak to germinate). The plant is biennial, so if you see it blooming, it is in its second year and will die in the fall. I have never seen them in wild in the same place twice. As I mentioned, the finches love them, and routinely go after the seed heads just before they open, when the seeds are ripe but confined to the seed head. Like raccoons know when the sweet corn is ripe just before you go out to pick it, the finches know when the seed head is about to open. Generally 50 to 75 percent of the seeds are eaten, which is why you never, never see fields or meadows thick with them as you do dandelions. As to spraying, do not use chemicals; bad for the soil, bad for the environment. Just pick the heads off before they open, the plant is in its second year and will die soon.
Thank you Stewart. That is an excellent answer.