🥕 An edible root 🌱 A flowering plant

salsify

1 9.8

A long white root vegetable with a mild taste used like potatoes

noun
/ˈsælsɪfaɪ/

: salsifí

This year they ate 2 pumpkins and the tops of my salsify.
salsify salad
grilled salsify
white salsify

Examples

The long, edible root of the salsify plant is often enjoyed in soups and stews.
When harvested, the salsify root resembles a long, slender carrot with a slightly tough skin.
Many chefs enjoy incorporating salsify into their dishes for its mild and unique flavor.

Synonyms

Tragopogon porrifolius

vssalsify

Specialized

9.9

A garden plant with purple flowers grown for its long root you can eat as a vegetable

is the common root name used in cooking rather than the scientific term

oyster plant

vssalsify

8.8

A plant with a long white root that tastes like oysters when cooked

is used as a mild-flavored root rather than one with shellfish taste

vegetable oyster

vssalsify

8.6

A plant with a root you can eat that tastes like oysters

is milder and noted for a gentle flavor rather than seafood likeness

black salsify

vssalsify

8.9

A plant with long black roots that you eat as a vegetable

is the mild-flavored root commonly eaten rather than the dark-skinned variety

Compounds

black salsify

8.9

A plant with long black roots that you eat as a vegetable

meadow salsify

9.9

A common weed with yellow flowers that grows near roads and in lawns

yellow salsify

9.9

A plant from Europe that lives many years with long narrow leaves and pale yellow flowers

Surface Forms

salsify singular

salsifies plural

Etymology

Salsify comes from a French name for the plant, salsifis. A helpful way to remember it is to think of sal- like 'salt' and the sea, because the root was compared to an oyster in taste (called the 'oyster plant'), so salsify is the edible root with a mild, slightly sea-like flavor.