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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-256
Salsify
Tragopogon porrifolius
Salsify's root has a mild flavor said to resemble oysters, but the bigger surprise is that almost every part of the plant is edible at a different time of year - root through winter, young shoots in spring, flowering shoots cooked like asparagus, even the flowers and sprouted seed in salads. Left to bolt instead of harvested, it throws big purple daisy flowers that draw pollinators early in the season, so growers often deliberately leave a few plants standing rather than digging every root. It grows well in ordinary garden soil, including heavy clay, and spreads itself on the wind once established.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Rhizosphere- Soil pH
- 6–8
- Plant type
- Biennial
- Mature height
- 2–4 ft
- Mature spread
- 4–20 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–36 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Beet
Beta vulgaris
Beet is a fast two-harvest crop from one sowing: the root eats raw, grated, or cooked, and the leaves make a genuinely good spinach…
Rhizosphere · USDA 2–11
Black Salsify
Pseudopodospermum hispanicum
Black salsify is the better-flavored, more forgiving cousin of common salsify, and hardly grown in the United States. Its root can be left in…
Rhizosphere · USDA 5–9
Burdock Root
Arctium minus
Lesser Burdock is a different species from the straight gobo root grown as a vegetable - it is the stronger medicinal plant of the two, rated…
Rhizosphere · USDA 3–10
Celeriac
Apium graveolens var rapaceum
Celeriac is a better companion plant than it is a headline vegetable: growing plants repel the cabbage white butterfly, which makes it worth…
Rhizosphere · USDA 3–9
Chinese Artichoke
Stachys affinis
Chinese Artichoke produces small, pearl-shaped tubers with a mild, nutty, artichoke-like taste, eaten raw or lightly cooked - and unlike most…
Rhizosphere · USDA 4–8
Daikon
Raphanus sativus var longipinnatus
Daikon is a large white radish grown as much for what it does to soil as for what ends up on a plate - one planting yields root, leaves,…
Rhizosphere · USDA 2–11
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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