Goatsbeard

About the Goatsbeard

Goatsbeard, also called western salsify, is best known not for its yellow flower but for what comes after: a spectacular silvery seed globe like a dandelion puffball scaled up to the size of a softball. Each seed hangs beneath its own gauzy parachute, and a single head seems engineered, spoke by spoke, with a precision that stops hikers in their tracks.

The flower itself is a pale yellow star that opens in the morning and usually closes by midday, which earned the plant the old folk name Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon.

This perfect seed head was photographed in Dog Canyon, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, backlit by the August morning sun.