Tragopogon pratensis

General aspect with chapters in various state of growth

Chapter in flower

Chapter in fructification

Clipselas: detail of the polished vilane

Tragopogon pratensis, commonly known as goat beard or salsify, among others, is a species of biennial plant herb of the genus Tragopogon of the family Asteraceae.

Description

It is a biennial species with simple or branched stems, erect and glabrous, 30-120 cm tall. The root, edible and locally highly prized, is upright, robust and with numerous fine lateral roots. It has long, linear, semi-embracing leaves with usually recurved apices; the basal ones not organized in a rosette and the cauline ones much shorter. The capitular peduncles, considerably longer than the basal leaves, are erect, glabrous and not apically inflated; they hold terminal and solitary chapters 2.5-3 cm long and 12-20 mm wide. These flower heads, which usually open early in the morning and close at noon, have 8-10 linear or lanceolate bracts 2.5-4 cm long and their receptacle is glabrous, punctuated-honeycombed, initially flat and then convex. The quinquefid yellow ligules have the androecium with yellow anther stamens and the style of the pistil, of the same yellow colour. The fruits are fusiform cypselas with a body 2-2.5 cm long, somewhat curved and longitudinally furrowed with fine tuberculate intermediate ridges, sharply tapering into a fine, smooth centimeter beak surmounted by a pappus of numerous whitish feathery hairs.

Distribution and habitat

Native to Europe and Asia; extended to Scandinavia to the north, Siberia and Pakistan to the east. Introduced to North America, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and New Zealand. Absent in Africa.
Dispersed throughout the Iberian Peninsula, especially in the northern half; absent from the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands.
According to Linnaeus' original diagnosis: "Habitat in Europae pratis apricis" (habitat in sunny meadows of Europe)[3].

Taxonomy

The species was originally described as Tragopogon pratense by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in Institutiones Rei Herbariae, vol. 1 p. 477 in the year 1700 and has been subsequently validated by Carlos Linnaeus and published in Species Plantarum, vol. 2 P. 789 in 1753[4].

Etymology

• Tragopogon: Latin borrowed trăgůpōgōn, -ōnis, vocable derived directly from the Greek τραγοπεγων and composed of the vocablos τρ columnaγο density, -ου, goat, goat, and εγων, -, beard; i.e. "sad bar", for the prickly white hairs of the vilane that stand out in the apex of the inflorescences, almost always closed, and that they resemble the chirney chive. Employed by Pliny the Old in his Naturalis History (27, 142) with the same meaning and that considers it without the least usefulness.
• pratensis: Latin prātensis,"that grows in the meadows."

The lectotype of the species was designated in 1992 by Consuelo Díaz de Guardia and Gabriel Blanca based on a specimen from the J. Bursen Herbarium preserved at the University of Uppsala (Sweden), since the specimen from Linnaeus' own Herbarium is too dilapidated to preserve as type.

Subspecies accepted

• Tragopogon pratensis subsp. leiocarpus (Saut. ex Trnka) Greuter
• Tragopogon pratensis subsp. retail (Mill.) Hartm.

Synonyms

• Note: there is some confusion and/or discrepancies between authors about the synonyms of the nominal species. The list ut infra collects all the synonyms cited in recent botanical literature.

• Tragopogon carinatus Gilib., Nom. Inval.
• Tragopogon melanantherus Klokov
• Tragopogon retail Mill.
• Tragopogon mouldavicus Klokov
• Tragopogon orientalis L.
• Tragopogon praecox Focke
• Tragopogon pratensis var. angustifolius Schur
• Tragopogon pratensis subsp. eupratensis Thell.
• Tragopogon pratensis graminifolius G.Mey., Nom. nud.
• Tragopogon pratensis var. macrorhizus 'Bisch.
• Tragopogon pratensis var. retail Willk, 1865 non T. pratensis subsp. retail (Mill.) Hartm., 1846, which is an accepted infra-specific taxon.
• Tragopogon pratensis subsp. Eastern (L.) Čelak.
• Tragopogon pratensis subsp. pratensis
• Tragopogon pratensis f. pratensis
• Tragopogon pratensis tortilis G. Mey.
• Tragopogon pratensis var. tortilis (G. Mey.) W.D.J.Koch
• Tragopogon revolutus Schweigg.
• Tragopogon rumelicus Velen.
• Tragopogon shuttleworthii Godet
• Tragopogon sylvestris Garsault, Nom. Inval.
• Tragopogon tortilis (G.Mey.) Pritz.
• Tragopogon transcarpaticus Klokov
• Tragopogon xanthantherus Klokov

Cytology

Number of chromosomes: 2n=12.

Hybridization

In 1759 Linnaeus had already obtained artificially hybrids between Tragopogon pratensis and Tragopogon porrifolius) with purplish ligules and yellow bases. This hybrid was later found in a state first in Sweden (Tragopogon porrifolio-pratensis Gosselm), then in western and central France and then described by Georges Rouy as Tragopogon × mirabilis[5], times cited as T. × mirabile.

The species, introduced to the United States where it became an invasive weed, has given rise to a fertile allopolyploid hybrid endemic to limited areas of the United States (Washington and Idaho states): Tragopodon miscellus (Tragopogon dubius × Tragopogon pratensis|T. pratensis).

Another fertile hybrid of the species has also been described in the United States (State of Maryland): Tragopogon × neohybridus Farw., born from the cross between Tragopogon porrifolius and Tragopogon pratensis var. tortilis, and which presents ligules of a color Neutral Red corresponding exactly to the artificial mixture of the basic colors of the parent species (Lemon Yellow and Light Lavender Purple), the 3 colors determined according to the chromatic scale in force in the United States at the time of the description (Color standards and color nomenclature by Robert Ridgway, 1912[6]).

Another hybrid between T. pratensis and T. dubius is reported from the state of Michigan in the northern United States and the border region of neighboring Canada Province of Manitoba: Tragopogon × crantzii Dichtl.
It had originally been described from Lower Austria by Alois Dichtl as Tragopogon Crantzii (T. orientalis × T. major) and published in Deutsche Botanische Monatsschrift: Organ für Floristen, Systematiker und alle Freunde der heimischen Flora, vol 1, p. 171, 1883[7]. It is a synonym of Tragopogon interjectus Waisb., a species also described, somewhat later, from Austria[8].

In addition, they are quoted —and accepted or only provisionally accepted—:

• Tragopogon × bischoffii Sch.Bip. in Webb & Berth., Hist. Nat. Iles Canariesvol. 3, 2ème parie, Phytografia canariensis, sect. 2, p. 469, 1850[9] (also spelled bischoffi), observed and quoted, without description, by the author in his garden, in Germany, who attributes him as relatives T. pratensis and T. major (chuckles)T. dubius subsp. major (Jacq.) Vollm.).

• Tragopogon × haussknechtii P.Fourn., Les Quatre Flores de la France, p. 1036, 1940, described in the Department of Allier, in the center of France, resulting from the crossing of T. dubius subsp. major and T pratensis.

Vernacular names

• Castilian: beard cabruna (6), beard cabruna de prados, beard de goat (4), beard de choto, beard de macho, beardja, beards, barbon, barbón (4), bastard, dairy, lettuce, lencherin, lencherín, rosette calzada, rosette yellow, salsifí (3), salsifíla actual french, yoca (the figures in parévole).

In Puerto Rico: Daisies of rocks.