| Plant Description: | |  |
| Name: | dandelion |
| Scientific Name: | Taraxacum officinale |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Type: | Broadleaf |
| Lifecycle: | Perennial |
| Habit: | Germinates or sprouts year round but mainly in fall and spring. Major flower production starts in spring and may last all summer and into fall. |
| Leaves: | May have several shapes but usually have pointed jagged edges and typically lack hairs. When leaves are cut, milky sap exudes from the cut surface.
|
| Leaf Arrangement: | Whorled |
| Characteristics: | All plant parts have milky sap. Enlarged taproot on mature plants. |
| Flower Seed Head: | Yellow flowers with numerous petals attached to slender stalks. Flowers soon turn to white puffy balls of seed. A bare knobby stalk often remains when seed are blown away. |
| Seed Fruit: | Seed are light brown and have jagged edges. Each seed is attached to a slender stalk that contains a tuft of hairs on the opposite end. |
| Where Found: | Lawns and waste places. Tolerates mowing. |