Tragopogon porrifolius

Tragopogon porrifolius

This is an unusual plant in my region, but on a recent hike I found a stand of Tragopogon porrifolius, commonly known as Oyster Root or Salsify. I prefer to call it Purple Salsify to distinguish it from the Yellow Salsify, Tragopogon dubium, which is more common in this area.

All parts of the plant are more-or-less edible. The best parts are the flower and the root. The flowers taste the same as Tragopogon dubium (Yellow Salsify), and I have written about them in my article on that plant. I'm not going to repeat that here, so go there to read more about eating the flowers.

The root is what most people are interested in when they talk about Tragopogon porrifolius. It has even been cultivated for for the root, famously by Thomas Jefferson after Lewis and Clark brought samples back from their explorations. And it deserves the recognition it gets. 

One thing I noticed about the Purple Salsify plants I found is that even thought the flowers are the same size, they grow about twice as tall as Yellow Salsify. The first-year plants were also about twice as tall, stouter, and with many more leaves than Yellow Salsify. This size difference applies to the root as well, so, geometrically speaking, the roots should be eight times the volume. The roots I found were harvested in July (mid-summer) instead of in the fall when they would be the largest, but they were already much larger and plumper than the scrawny, woody roots of T. dubium. In a well-cared-for garden, they can get much larger still.

When harvesting the roots, remember that this is a biennial, so if the plant has flowers, the roots will have gone woody, and will not be good to eat. In the wild, the flowers are much more noticeable, but you can look around and spot the first-year plants. They grow from a dense cluster of grass-like leaves, but unlike grass, when broken they have milky sap. It is fortunate that they are much larger than Yellow Salsify, because that makes it easier to distinguish the first-year plant from the actual grasses growing around them.

I boiled my roots for 10 minutes. I did not try to peal them first, but the outer skin rubs off fairly easily after cooking. I tried with and without the skin and didn't notice much difference in taste. It has a good flavor. I don't think it tastes much like oysters, but I'm not a big fan of oysters, so my opinion probably doesn't count. The best description we could come up with is somewhere between a potato and a carrot. After cooking, is it fairly soft, but it seems to have some fibers too, so slicing it before serving will cut those fibers so only the soft texture is evident. Overall, these root are a very good meal, with a size and flavor which makes it well worth seeking them out.

Since the leaves of the first-year plants are abundant, I tried cooking them, by boiling or frying. While the taste is fine, they are rather tough and fibrous, so it is much like eating grass. Some sources have suggested using them in a salad, but I don't enjoy trying to chew them up raw, and cooking them did not help either.

Tragopogon dubium

Tragopogon dubium

Tragopogon dubium is commonly known as Western Salsify, and occasionally as Oyster Root, although that may better be used for the eastern, purple-flowered species, Tragopogon porrifolius. 

the most recognizable
but least edible stage

The salsify flower is easy to recognize. It is yellow and fairly large, with narrow green sepals which are even longer than the petals. But the seeds are even more distinctive. If you have ever seen something which looks like a giant dandelion, that is salsify which has gone to seed. Tragopogon is in the dandelion tribe (tribe is a botanical category placed between family and genus), so it shares certain characteristics: the composite flowers are formed from all ray flowers (the strap-shaped petals) with no disk flowers (which you seed in the center of a sunflower, for example), and it has milky sap which is evident when you break a leaf or stem. Some people will say to avoid plants with milky sap, because they might be poisonous, but none of the dandelion tribe is poisonous, and most are good to eat.

The whole plant is more-or-less edible, but the best and easiest part to eat, in my experience, is the flower and the stalk immediately below the flower. But you have to pick the flower at the right time, before it goes to seed when it is still tender. The flower has an interesting life cycle where it forms a bud, then opens, usually in the morning for a day or so. It then closes again, and opens again when the seeds are ready into the distinctive "giant dandelion" form. The flowers are easiest to find in the morning, when they will be first opening in sunny grassy fields. I have walked through a field in the morning and seen many open flowers, then walked through the same field in the afternoon and seen none. They are good tasting and tender when the flowers are fresh. When they close up again to form seeds they become rather too tough to eat. The flower buds before flowering are also excellent to eat, but you need to distinguish them from the closed flowers which are forming seeds. If you pull the bud open and see bright yellow petals, it is good to eat. If you just see some faded yellow petals near the tip of the bud, then it is older and forming seeds. Whether you eat the flower or bud, be sure to include the stem below the flower, which is especially sweet, and is one of my favorite trail-side snacks. 

I have not found roots of Tragopogon dubium which are good to eat. Mainly this is because the plant is a biennial, and it is difficult to identify in the first year when the root is storing up energy. The leaves are long and narrow and grass-like, making them difficult to see in grassy fields where it is likely to grow. In the second year of growth it sends up a flower stalk, and the flowers and seeds are very easy to identify, but by then the root energy has been expended in growing the flower stalk and has become tough and woody. If you have ever let a garden carrot stay in the ground all winter until the next year when it sends up a large flower stalk, you have witnessed a similar biennial growth pattern. The carrot root becomes woody and no longer tastes good after it uses the stored energy to send up the flower stalk. The roots of Tragopogon porrifolius are much larger and more tender, so eat those if you can find them. Unfortunately, that species is rare in my area.