This wildflower is also known as 'Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon' because its lovely yellow flowers closes up into a beautiful pointed bud at midday. Flowering from June to August, it's a most attractive plant with its solitary 2-4cm heads of spreading yellow ray florets and longer narrow linear bracts. Growing to 60cm high, Goat's-beard has linear-lanceolate leaves which are tapered and grass-like. The rigid stem produces white latex and is swollen slightly below the flower-heads. It flowers in June and July after which large feathery 'clocks' of seedheads form. This plant is a native and belongs to the family Asteraceae
I found this plant first in Killoughter, Co Wicklow in 1980 and photographed it at that same location in 1998.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
