Monday, June 12, 2006

Goatsbeard

Goatsbeards, on our property, comes in two flavours. There is Meadow Goatsbeard (Tragopogon pratensis ssp.pratensis) which is bright yellow and has florets that are longer than its eight bracts and Yellow Goatsbeard (Tragopogon dubius) which is more lemon yellow with ten or more bracts that are longer than the florets.

Below are two photos from about 9:00 in the morning. One can see that the flower is having difficulty opening due to a spider's web.





When Églantine and I came back at 10:30 a.m., the plant had forced the spider web to almost give up. We probably should have gone back at noon to see what had happened by then as normally the Goatsbeards close up again by then.

5 comments:

Endment said...

Great viewing adventure - thanks for sharing the Goatsbeard!

clairesgarden said...

superb wildlife shots from both of you, as Endment says - thankyou for sharing!

Peruby said...

I blogged a picture of my goatsbeard today also (but during the seeding phase). I was unaware there were two varieties.

kerrdelune said...

Hm, now I have to go to my photo archive and see what kinds of Goatsbeard are blooming in the front field - I was not aware there was more than one kind, but I do enjoy their pinwheel shapes.

Ontario Wanderer said...

E, Glad you enjoyed our adventure.

C, Thanks!

P, I did a quick scan of your blog. I could not tell what kind of goatsbeard you had but a count of the bracts might be a good clue if you are interested. (Most people don't show that much interest.)

K, What did you find out about your goatsbeards?