Meadow salsify

General: plant with milky sap, 15-80 cm tall. Growth habit: erect biennial, more or less branched when well developed, from taproot.
Stems: erect, hairless, often with whitish cast.
Leaves: alternate, grass-like, 5-30 cm long, nearly 2 cm wide, often much narrower, rather abruptly narrowed a little above the base, curved backward at tips, slightly tufted with woolly hairs when young, soon hairless. 
Flowerheads: yellow, with ray florets only. Stalks not enlarged under heads in flower and scarcely so in fruit.  Involucral bracts most commonly 8, mostly 12-24 mm  long in flower, equaling or shorter than the rays, elongating to 18-38 mm in fruit.
Flowering time: May-August. 
Fruits: achenes, slender, 15-25 mm long, rather abruptly narrowed to the slender, relatively short beak, which is shorter than the achene. Pappus of whitish, feathery bristles.