Fancy an Oyster?

We're doing quite a bit of botanical and other ecological survey work at the moment through one of our trading subsidiaries - Arc (this is how we fund parts of our organization and work). Amongst the many other interesting things to spring up on a particular bit of old and abandoned arable farmland currently awaiting development were dozens of plants of this beautiful thing: Tragopogon porrifolius or Salsify. It's just a big dandelion in many ways but with striking purple flowers that open and close during the course of the day. It's a naturalized Mediterranean species and widely cultivated and eaten as a delicacy elsewhere. It's also called the Oysterplant because the root apparently has just that taste. These scrawny feral ones wouldn't taste much of anything I shouldn't think, but the big fat pampered ones have fleshy white roots that can be prepared and cooked in all manner of ways in all manner of dishes. It is also said to ' splendidly deosbtruent ' (a word that means exactly what you think it means) so don't say I didn't warn you.