Photo of the Week – Floral Naughty Bits

<p><i>Tragopogon dubius</i>, Asteraceae<br />
Iona Beach Regional Park, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada<br />
Nikon D5100, 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6<br />
May 23, 2015</p>

Western Goat's Beard

Tragopogon dubius, Asteraceae
Iona Beach Regional Park, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Nikon D5100, 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6
May 23, 2015

Like Dandelion with which is sometimes confused, Western Goat’s Beard is another member of the daisy family (Asteraceae). It can be easily distinguished from Dandelion by it’s longer involucre bracts (leafy bits just below the flowers) which extend beyond the flowers. Both species lack the central disk flowers of their more daisy like relatives and their flowering heads consist only of ray flowers. I really like this shot because you can clearly see the bilobed stigma (♀ bits) and fused anther cylinders (♂ bits) that are characteristic of the Asteraceae.

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