Dandelion
Scientific Name: Taraxacum officinale Weber,
Other Names: pissenlit, dent-de-lion, pissenlit officinal
Family: Composite or Aster Family (Compositae)
General Description: Perennial, reproducing only by seed.
Habitat: Dandelion occurs throughout Ontario in virtually every kind of habitat, from openings in deep woods to cultivated fields, from rocky hillsides to fertile gardens, and lawns.
Seedlings
-
Seedling with rosette
- Alternate leaves (1 per node)
- Cotyledons are orbicular to oblong, apex rounded, 5- 10 mm (1/5- 2/5 in.) long
No stem
Leaves
- Leaves in a basal rosette on a thick, deeply penetrating taproot
- Elongated
- Deeply and irregularly lobed along each side or sometimes just shallowly toothed
- The amount and shape of lobing or toothing being extremely variable from one plant to another
Flowers
- Heads showy
- Bright yellow
- 3.2- 5 cm (1¼- 2 in.) across
- Borne singly on long, smooth, leafless, unbranched, hollow stalks which arise from among the rosette leaves
- Only ray (strap-shaped) florets present
- Outer row of involucral bracts short and spreading or bent down
- Seed heads white, more or less spherical, 3.5- 5 cm (1½- 2 in.) across
- Seeds:
- Long
- Slender with a slender beak tipped with a tuft of white hair (pappus or "parachute")
- Long
- Whole plant with sticky white juice
- Flowers from early spring to late autumn
Often Confused With
Sow Thistle
Colt’s-Foot
Chicory (Chicory leaves are not always opposite and they point forward or backward. They have more prominent, coarse hair on the basal leaves).
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