Biennials (sometimes winter annuals) [perennials], (15-)50-150 cm; taprooted. Stems 1(-5), erect, usually branched proximally, glabrous or tomentulose to floccose [lanate], often glabrescent. Leaves basal and cauline; sessile; blades linear to lance-linear or lance-attenuate (grasslike) [lanceolate to oblong], (bases clasping) margins entire (faces glabrous or tomentulose to floccose [lanate], often glabrescent). Heads borne singly (terminal). Peduncles often inflated distally (not in T. pratensis), ebracteate. Calyculi 0. Involucres campanulate [cylindric] (at flowering), mostly 10-20+ mm diam. Phyllaries usually [5-7] 8-12 [13-16] in 1 series, linear-lanceolate, triangular-lanceolate [oblong-lanceolate], linear, ± equal, margins white, narrowly pellucid, apices acute (faces glabrous [with intertwining hairs]). Receptacles convex, smooth, glabrous, epaleate. Florets (30-)50-180+; corollas yellow or purple (proximally yellow, distally purple in T. mirus) (± deliquescent). Cypselae dark to pale brown, stramineous, whitish, bodies ± fusiform to cylindric, usually beaked, beaks concolorous with, or paler than bodies, abrupt to gradually tapered, 5-10-ribbed (ribs usually muricate, prickly, or scaly), faces usually glabrous, sometimes scaley or muricate; pappi (usually borne on discs at tips of beaks) persistent, of 12-20+, brownish to whitish, basally connate, ± plumose, subequal to unequal awns or subulate scales, in 1 series (lateral barbs or setulae often ± intertwined). x = 6. Tragopogon is weedy in North America. Allotetraploids T. mirus and T. miscellus are native to the United States. The heads of tragopogons usually open early mornings and close by midday.