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Project Noah Nature School
Tragopogon porrifolius
This plant was baout 2 feet tall with beautiful purple flowers. the leaves reminded me of corn. Pic 4 shows a mature seed pods.
Growing wild amongst grass in a lakeside reserve. A native of the mediterranean, it now grows wild here and has been introduced into many other countries.
The flower head explodes into a rounded structure with seeds arranged as in dandelion -here's a spotting :
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/157...
The roots of this plant taste like oysters - young roots are added to salad but the mature ones need to be cooked.
Young shoots are eaten like asparagus, flowers and sprouted seeds can be used in salads.
Used in herbal medicine as a liver tonic and diuretic.
Family: Asteraceae
Spotted on Nov 17, 2014
Submitted on Nov 18, 2014
4 Comments
I agree Vinny... come to think of it I'm not ready for oyster flavoured oysters.
Neither am I ! but I've spread some seeds around the garden anyway - might try the young shoots. I tried Asian greens that taste fishy - not my kind of thing at all.
I've heard the root of this plant is edible and tastes like oysters..... I'm not sure if i'm ready for vegetable tasting oysters ;)
Lovely!