Jack Go To Bed at Noon
Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon (Tragopogon pratensis)
This flower gets its nick-name from its flowering habit.
It opens in the morning and closes midday.
Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon is also known as Yellow Goatsbeard.
(can't imagine why)
A more apt name, but one I have only read (not heard) is Shepherd's
Clock.
~
As the immortal poet Cowley pens:
'The goat's beard,
which each morn abroad doth peep
But shuts its flowers
at noon and goes to sleep.'
(I haven't the faintest clue who Cowley is. The only reference
I have found is as the author of this poem.)
(It may be Abraham Cowley, who is famous for: "life is an incurable
disease")
Plant Type: This is a non-native herbaceous plant which
can reach 90cm in height (36inches).
Leaves: The leaves are alternate. Each leaf is entire,
slender, tapering to a long narrow tip and clasps the stem.
Flowers: The flowers have numerous parts. They are yellowgreen.
Blooms first appear in early summer and continue into mid summer.
Fruit: A ball of wind dispersed achenes.
(In
case you are wondering what achenes are:
achene:
Small one-seeded, thin walled, indehiscent fruit smaller than a nut.
Let's
see you use indehiscent in a sentence!
indehiscent: Not opening at maturity.)
Habitat: Fields, fencerows and waste places.
Source:
http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H162.htm
The seeds of this flower resemble delicate dandelion fluff.
In the above picture, there is bedstraw in the background.
~
Cecily Mary Barker has captured the essence of this weed in the Jack-Go-To-Bed-At-NoonFairy:
Keep your eye out for the Jack Go to Bed at Noon Fairy while you are
out looking at wildflowers.
~~
Photos taken
in June and July, 2001
Copyright Leslie
Please send
your comments. Thanks.
