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Salsify (Tragopogon dubius)
About 1 metre tall this plant had multiple stems each having few nodes with big inter-nodal gaps, Flowers started as single, spear-like cones with green bracts which open to expand a yellow flower later becoming a spherical creamy coloured head of seeds called a wishie or clock.
Growing wild on a highway median strip under old plantation eucalyptus.
European perennial naturalized and invasive throughout United States and Canada. Also called Western Goat's Beard, Wild Oysterplant, Yellow Salsify, Yellow Goat's Beard, Meadow Goat's Beard, Goat's Beard, Goatsbeard, Common Salsify, or Salsify. Young roots and stems may be edible. According to Atlas of Living Australia it occurs in Southern NSW.
I do like the geometry of that seed head though.
"Tragopogon dubius" is a species of salsify native to southern and central Europe and western Asia and found as far north and west as northern France. Although it has been reported from Kashmir and India, recent evidence suggests that specimens from these areas may be a different species.
