Jack Go To Bed At Noon
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Look forward to hearing more about your Czech travels :)
ReplyDeleteI wish I was there too. It looks a lot cooler than here.
ReplyDeleteAnna - I have a couple of posts lined up for next month's OOTS :)
ReplyDeleteMMD - the picture was taken very early morning when it was relatively cool. It was pretty hot whilst I was there - 93 degrees Fahrenheit and no air conditioning!
A beautiful post card indeed!
ReplyDeletea very beautiful post card - i never knew that Czech republic was so beautiful, i really like the place and would want to visit it sometime!!
ReplyDeleteCherrie and Henna - welcome and thank you :)
ReplyDelete