Dandelion

March 31, 2021July 3, 2022
Flora and Fauna
by dhir

All photos taken by the author. Last updated April 23, 2021.

While there are many fluffy yellow flowers in our neighbourhood throughout the year, only dandelions have smooth, arrow-shaped deeply-lobed leaves originating from the a single point on the ground. This type of leaf growth is called a **basal rosette.**

Common dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) were introduced to North America hundreds of years ago deliberately by Europeans who brought seeds from their home countries in the hopes of cultivating familiar food and medicine plants where their ships landed. Since that time, these plants have naturalized and seem to thrive everywhere. Look for the arrow-shaped basal rosette of leaves up to 30 cm long and fluffy yellow ray flowers up to 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter, each flower on a hollow stem. Dandelions are perennials, meaning they die back in the winter and regrow from their taproot the following spring. So, if you are trying to remove a dandelion and do not get the full taproot out, it will regrow in the same spot. I have some dandelions growing close to cement and I can’t quite get the taproot out so it is just a never-ending battle of me pulling green leaves and the dandelions growing more in the same spot.

If you observe the flowers carefully, you will notice that, like many other species of flowers, they are fully open in full sun, and closed up when the sun disappears, either because it has set or because it is cloudy.

Depending on the plant, dandelion flowers can be flat to the ground or several inches above on a smooth, round stem.

Dandelion flowers at various stages of opening. At the left is a closed flower bud, centre is almost fully open, and on the right is a fully opened flower.

Dandelion flowers are composites, made up of hundreds of ray flowers but no disc flowers. Read more about this here.

NOT a dandelion. Yes, this is a basal rosette, but these leaves are fuzzy, not smooth, and they are more round lobed instead of arrow lobed.

The same plant as above. Notice the tiny hairs on the leaves clearly proving it is NOT a dandelion.

Dandelions at the top, and a different type of plant at the bottom.

NOT dandelions. Yes the leaves are smooth and grow in a basal rosette formation, but they are not lobed arrow-shapes.

Dandelion plants are edible, with medicinal properties related to kidneys, liver, skin, and digestion. DO NOT CONSUME ANY WILD PLANT OR FUNGUS UNLESS YOU ARE 100% CERTAIN OF ITS IDENTITY AND USAGE.

After blooming, the bright flowers become “puffballs” of achenes (seeds) with furry white parachutes to carry them on the wind. (I haven’t seen any dandelion puffballs yet this year, have you? Here’s a website with good pictures of puffballs.)

The name dandelion is derived from the French dent de lion (lion’s tooth) supposedly due to the toothed leaves. I also think the flowers look like lions’ manes.

So, as you get some fresh air this week, enjoy identifying this common naturalized species. If you find a puffball, feel free to let your inner child out as you blow the seeds away (provided no none is within 2 metres of you ;-).

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Update April 23, 2021

While sitting at the park I decided to pull apart a dandelion to really see what “ray flowers” really look like:

A single ray floret from a dandelion. Can you identify the different reproductive parts? Check out this Science World site for more on parts of a flower.

A dandelion flower that has been pulled in half. The stem is hollow and you can see the parts of the flower that become seeds and “fluff” after pollination.

Bottom view of a dandelion flower. The sepals are reddish-green and numerous.

BOOK:

“Common Dandelion”. The Flora and Fauna of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, by Collin Varner, Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd., 2018, p. 139.