Jack Go To Bed at Noon
 Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon (Tragopogon pratensis)
Jack Go to Bed at Noon - plant

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")
small flower

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

 
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