Common Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale
Family Asteraceae

Characteristics:
* Flower bright yellow, with many composite petals.
* Leaves jagged-lobed, with down-pointing bracts.
* Seedball globular, fluffy.
* Stem hollow, milky.
* Height: 2-18".

Natural History:
* Blossoms throughout spring and summer.
* Habitat: Lawns, fields, roadsides.
* Range: Throughout the United States.
* Introduced from Europe.

Connections!
* Dandelions are ingeniously engineered weeds...do you ever wonder why they suddenly appear towering over newly mown grass? The leaves and stem lie close to the ground, avoiding the lawnmower blade, and after mowing the stem shoots rapidly up. The seeds also have tiny barbs, to help them work themselves into the soil after being carried by the wind or your breath.

* AND they can be made into coffee and wine, and eaten as a vegetable! To make dandelion 'coffee', roast the roots for four hours or until dark brown and cracking. Then grind the roots and prepare as you would coffee.

* "Dandelion this,
A college youth that flashes for a day
All gold; anon he doffs his gaudy suit,
Touch'd by the magic hand of some grave Bishop,
And all at once, by commutation strange,
Becomes a Reverend Divine."
-James Hurdis, 1788