Giant dandelion

Got alerted to this in my garden the other day, and wanted to share it on here coz it's pretty impressive. I've never actually seen owt like this before anywhere in England (mind you, I haven't been looking), and I'm not entirely sure what it is.The stalk and leaves look more like corn than the weed, but the heads are definitely dandelion. I'm waiting for the flowers to come out to post more pics, but I'll add the ones I've got already. It's 4ft 5 high by the tape measure, but that's around 2 inches out because it got burnt and somehow stretched so it could be up to about 4 foot 7. I'm 5 foot 2 and it's up to my bottom lip. I have googled it, but none of the flowers have the same stem. :S

I know it's just a weed, but it's amazingly pretty.

Anyway, thought I'd share.

Here we go:

Seeded:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0e0071bd6918.png[/atsimg]

Entire plant:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ba40e848db11.png[/atsimg]

Bud:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4c073d17a8f5.jpg[/atsimg]

Stem:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/088e067dcd8e.jpg[/atsimg]

haha i seen one of these in my front garden the other day and showed my mum it i had the same reaction you probably did "holy # look at the size of that dandelion" but i like you was wrong its a whole different species of plant i cant remember what it is called now. ill find out later and post back.

The stem, leaves and flower bud don't look like a dandelion at all. The seed head is similar though.

www.seedambassadors.org...

What you have is Tragopogon, salsify or commonly known as oyster plant...salsify...a biennial plant which can have yellow or purple flowers depending on the species. The root is edible and has been cultivated for its oyster flavor (ugh!)

I always allow a few of these to continue in the garden because I love those big poofy seed heads!

Could it be western Salsify? It is native to Europe.

Tragopogon dubius- Wiki

The seed head in my link is a dead ringer for your photo, scroll down to see it on the right side.

reply to post by czygyny
Ahhh, you beat me to it.

My grandmother loved salsify.

reply to post by Ayana


thats a pretty cool weed.And don't feel to bad i thought it looked like a dandelion too

We have this throughout Canada and here we call it "milkweed". It grows wild in fields and it is the "plant of choice" for the monarch butterflies who lay their eggs in and around these plants because it seems to be a great source of food for the caterpillars. I knew what this was going to be as soon as I read the title - folks who have never seen milkweed before always seem to assume that they are related to dandelions because of their appearance.

It looks like a dandelion because it is fairly closely related to them, both are in the Asteraceae family and the Cichorieae tribe. They use the same mechanism to disperse their seeds...wind. They are also closely related to the beautiful sky-blue flowered chicory.

And here is why Linnaeus created the taxonomical method of classifying plants. What one region calls 'milkweed' is another person's Asclepias, which is not related to salsify at all. It gets a bit important when one is edible and one is not.

Originally posted by czygyny
What you have is Tragopogon, salsify or commonly known as oyster plant...salsify...a biennial plant which can have yellow or purple flowers depending on the species. The root is edible and has been cultivated for its oyster flavor (ugh!)

I always allow a few of these to continue in the garden because I love those big poofy seed heads!

I was going to chime in with this but you beat me to it. Good eye!

Wow, thanks for the input everyone


Yeah, the flowers are yellow and in a classic dandelion sort of bud shape. I'll add a pic when one flowers.

I wonder where it came from . One of the seeds must've blown by in the wind and took root, I've never seen one round here before!

It's pretty amazing to look at!