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...
How unusual, sweet too!
ReplyDeleteMade me smile!
ReplyDeleteWelly good.
ReplyDeleteI passed the garden of kettles again today. I'm always on the look out for new unusual gardens but not having much luck recently.
They do look good. I wonder what happens about drainage.
ReplyDeletecuuutiiieee! :) This one made me remember how good it was to sing in the rain..
ReplyDeleteLovely wee welly garden, all it needs now is a robin perched on the edge of one.
ReplyDeleteBridget - aren't they just?
ReplyDeleteSusan - me too x
Mark - I'm sure when you find something, you'll pass it right along :)
Esther - I suspect they were probably leaking in the first place and so got donated for this project
Cecile - most cute and I've seen another example which might feature here at some point...
Cally - welcome :) That would have been great to capture on camera wouldn't it?
Outdoor products - I suspect you're spam, so I've removed your comment. But it was a good one, so I'll repeat it here:
Hehe, those are cutie li'l things... I guess they drill the bottom for drainage?