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Yellow goat's-beard stems produce a long naked stalk from their tips that bears a single flowerhead. Individual flowerheads are bright yellow and 1-2.5" across. Between 50-180 ray florets are present; disc florets are absent. A series of about eight sharply pointed, narrow green bracts (the same length or shorter than the outer ray florets) surround the base of the flowerhead. The outer ray florets (the "petals") are much longer than the inner ray florets. All ray florets have an outer tip decorated with five small teeth. Near the base of the ray florets is a composite reproductive structure consisting of a single yellow style, bifurcated at its tip, and five stamens with black anthers closely appressed to the middle of the style. Fertilized florets produce a long, narrow naked seed; the seed is attached to a plume of fine white hairs (like a dandelion). The seed head looks like a giant (3" across) version of a dandelion seed head. Like Tragopogon dubius, it's an exotic, but at least it's less aggressive. Distinguish yellow goat's beard (T. pratensis) from western goat's beard (T. dubius) by flower color (bright yellow vs. pale yellow), foliage color (green vs. bluish green, number of floral bracts (8 vs. 13), leaf shape (tips curled vs. tips straight), and length of the floral bracts (same as petals vs. much longer than petals).

Tragopogon

Tragopogon pratensis

yellow goat's-beard [Blooms: May-Aug]

The top of the wingstem plant is a dome (a panicle) of coarse-looking flowerheads. Each flowerhead is 1-2" across, with 2-10 yellow, oblong, drooping petals, 1/2-1" long that are derived from the sterile ray florets. Some 40-60+ yellowish-green, tubular disk florets project in all directions in a hemisphere of widely-spaced, robust, bud-like blunt cylinders, the tips of the disk florets. When receptive to pollen, the disk florets bear a protruding style with a bifurcated, curling pair of stigmas (likened by one source to a "pince-nez" — a pair of eyeglasses on a handle); the five stamens and their flattened, black anthers are appressed to the body of the style. The fruit is a teardrop-shaped seed with a pair of thin wings and two short, robust, spiky awns. Immature seeds are green; the seeds (and seedheads) turn brown when mature.

Verbesina

Verbesina alternifolia

wingstem [Blooms: Jul-Oct]