Check out google images and search for "beet greens" "parsnip greens" etc...

Amongst the pics you should get a decent mix of what they look like in the field, pulled up with leaves still attached, etc. mixed in between the pictures of just the leaves.

It depends entirely on the vegetable.

The umbelliferae family includes carrots, parsley, dill, fennel, parsnip, celery, celeriac, Queen Anne's Lace, and hemlock (the stuff that killed Socrates). The seed heads all look like a blown out umbrella. the words umbellifarae and umbrella are related.

Beets and spinach are in the chenopodiaceae family. Google images for chenopodiaceae and you'll find seed head pictures.

Turnips and Rutabagas are in the brassica family, along with mustards and cole crops. If you've seen bolted arugula or radishes, you'll have a general idea of what they seed heads look like. The flowers are white or yellow crosses, and the seed pods are long and thin, like tiny bean pods that point upward, and turn brown or black when they ripen. But turnips and rutabagas are biennial, so they'd need to be stored cold over the winter and replanted before they produce flowers and seed heads.

And then there's the allium family: Onions and their relatives. The flowers look like a pom-pom on a stick. They still look like a pom-pom on a stick when the seeds are ripe, but the color goes from (generally) purple to a dirty gray white.

Dan

Thank you, Dan! It never occurred to me to look up the family! A friend had asked what they looked like, and I realized that I had never seen them because I've never let the biennials last long enough to go to seed.

I did as you suggested and got my answers. Thanks!

Sue

Note that the majority of the vegetables mentioned by Dan are biennials. That's important to know if you want to save seeds or even if you just want to observe the seed heads..

Jim

Nope, the flowers aren't boring. They just require overwintering the roots and then having a second season of growth to get flowering, unlike many other veggies that will flower in one year. I've overwintered carrots and turnips in zone 5 with minimal mulch and watched them flower the next season. The carrots look almost like their wild counterpart, Queen Anne's Lace flowers, just a bit heftier. Turnips have a typical mustard/brassica flower with 4 petals. They sent up flower stalks almost as soon as the weather warmed enough for cold tolerant crops to grow.

Here's photos of some I grew. {{gwi:36750}}From Turnip flowers and seeds
{{gwi:36751}}From Turnip flowers and seeds
{{gwi:36752}}From Turnip flowers and seeds

Suzanne Ashworth's book, Seed to Seed, gives guidelines to follow if you want to harvest true to type seeds. Some of your listed veggies will cross with other garden and wild relatives.

I don't think beet flowers are much to look at but may give them a chance to reproduce in my garden this year if they survived the winter. I'd be careful growing parsnips for flowers/seeds. The sap/juice in leaves and stems can cause severe rashes...seems like it is actually a burn due to photosensitivity...not sure on that right now, but be careful with them.

Thank you very much! I don't know that I want to harvest them, my friend's question just got me to wondering what they looked like.

Thanks for the photos!

Sue