The Yellow Goatsbeard is fairly common in this country. It grows in
meadows and pastures and in waste places, and it is in flower all summer
and autumn.
It belongs to a large family of plants which are very difficult to
distinguish the one from the other, and you will find several
Goatsbeards that seem very much alike.
This Goatsbeard is a wiry, straight, slender plant. The dark green stem
is round, and the leaves grow close to it without stalks. These leaves
are like a broad blade of grass at the bottom where they join the stem,
but near the top they get very narrow and are folded together, so that
they appear almost round, and they end in a sharp point.
The flowers grow singly on round, smooth stems. They look like small
Yellow Dandelions with fewer yellow rays, and like the Dandelion they
are made up of many little yellow tubes grouped together, some of which
have yellow straps at the edge, while others have none. When the flower
is half open you will notice that it stands in a green cup made up of
eight narrow leaves with long, fine points. These points are much longer
than the yellow rays of the flower, and stand up beyond them when the
flower is closed. The flowers of the Goatsbeard have the curious habit
of closing at midday, even when the sun is shining.