Tragopogon, also known as goatsbeard[4] or salsify, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.
It includes the vegetable known as salsify, as well as a number of common wild flowers.
Flower colour varies within the genus, with some yellow species, and some bronze or purple.
Seeds are achenes and are borne in a globe like that of a dandelion but larger, and are dispersed by the wind.
The salsifies are mostly natives of Europe and Asia, but several species have been introduced into North America and Australia and have spread widely there.
These names are therefore inherently ambiguous, and best avoided, or reserved for the genus collectively.
The vegetable called salsify is usually the root of the purple salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius; the root is described as having the taste of oysters (hence the alternative common name "oyster plant" for some species in this genus), but more insipid with a touch of sweetness.
Other species are also used in the same way, including the black or Spanish salsify, Scorzonera hispanica, which is closely related though not a member of the genus Tragopogon.
The name Tragopogon comes from Ancient Greek τράγος (trágos) 'billy goat' and πώγων (pṓgōn) 'beard'.
[7][8] In the early 1900s, humans introduced three species of goatsbeard into North America.
One new species, Tragopogon miscellus, is a tetraploid hybrid of T. dubius and T. pratensis.
The other species, Tragopogon mirus, is also an allopolyploid, but its ancestors were T. dubius and T. porrifolius.
T. capitatus S.A.Nikitin T. castellanus Levier T. cazorlanum C.Díaz & Blanca T. charadzeae Kuth.
T. dasyrhynchus Artemczuk T. dolichocarpus Klokov T. duarius Chenev.
T. hayekii (Soó) I.Richardson T. heteropappus C.H.An T. hortensis Focke T. humilis Fisch.
T. krascheninnikovii S.A.Nikitin T. kultiassovii Popov ex S.A.Nikitin T. kurdicus Blakelock T. kurdistanicus Chrtek & Hadač T. lassithicus Rech.f.
T. marginatus Pavlov T. melanantherus Klokov T. meskheticus Kuth.
T. mirabilis Rouy – Ontario goatsbeard T. mirus Ownbey – remarkable goatsbeard T. miscellus Ownbey – hybrid goat's-beard, Moscow salsify T. moldavicus Klokov T. montanus S.A.Nikitin T. mutabilis Jacq.
T. subacaulis O.Schwarz T. subalpinus S.A.Nikitin T. tanaiticus Artemczuk T. tasch-kala Kuth.
T. trachycarpus S.A.Nikitin T. transcarpaticus Klokov T. transsilvanicus Hayek T. turkestanicus S.A.Nikitin T. ucrainicus Artemczuk T. vaginatus G.B.Ownbey & Rech.f.
T. vvedenskyi Popov T. xanthantherus Klokov T. × crantzii Dichlt.
– newhybrid salsify [ porrifolius × pratensis ] The following species were once included in Tragopogon and are now regarded as better suited to other genera: Agoseris, Geropogon, Krigia, Lasiospora, Nothocalais, Podospermum, Scorzonera, Taraxacum, and Urospermum.