Plant Story--The Common Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale

The dandelion is a plant everybody knows. That is quite a distinction since so many people are oblivious to the plants around them. And because dandelions are not particularly distinctive. There are many plants with similar yellow flowers and others with a puff-ball seed head. It is not the dandelion's  unique shapes that make it so widely recognized, but rather because it is so common.

common dandelion, Taraxacum officinale
seen in Seattle, Washington

Dandelions, Taraxacum officinale, in the sunflower family Asteraceae, are native to northern Europe but are currently found all over the globe. I have seen them: 

close to sea level in Portland, Oregon

at 11,670 feet in Guanella Pass, Colorado (Some grazer, elk perhaps, has eaten much of this dandelion)

in Oslo, Norway (This was in a lawn, the predator was a lawn mower)

in the Algarve, southern Portugal

In Ushuaia, Argentina at the tip of South America

In Milford Sound, New Zealand

In Waimea, Hawaii

They are not found everywhere. They are uncommon or absent in the humid tropics. They are rare in really dry habitats. They don't grow in standing water.

The reason dandelions are so well-known is they thrive in lawns and watered places that support European plants. Humans have gone around the world turning lots of unlikely spots into lawns, adding nutrients to poor soils, and watering when plants from Europe become thirsty, all of which make the land better for dandelions.

Their success comes from the ability to grow rapidly to flowering, quickly develop seeds, and then disperse those seeds in the wind. The tap root resists easily destroying the plant. 

The dandelions we see all over the United States are basically a clone. The pretty yellow flowers do not require pollen or pollination to produce seeds. The plant forms a seed around an ordinary cell and sends it off to germinate as a seed. Genetically it is the same as its parent. Botanists call this apomixis, reproducting by seed without going through sexual reproduction. Apomixis is very helpful for a weedy plant since only one individual, landing on a good site, can produce hundreds or thousands of seeds. It does not need to wait for a second member of the species to arrive. In the case of dandelions, apomixis also helps get seeds off quickly because the apomictic flower immediately starts developing the seeds, without waiting for a pollinator to find it or for pollen to reach the ovary. Dandelions produce seeds very early in the growing season.

Dandelions are quite cold tolerant and are frequently one of the earliest plants to flower in the spring, I have seen them flowering in November, December, January, and February in mid-continent (Nebraska and Colorado). If they have water and a few days above freezing, they will send up a flower. In places with mild winters, the leaves are evergreen so restarting growth when it warms a little is quick and easy.

Genetically, that widespread clone of apomictic dandelions that grows all across North America are triploids, with three copies of each gene. If they weren't able to make seeds apomicticly, they would be largely sterile (see blog on polyploidy link) In their homeland, in Europe, populations of common dandelions are diploid, make fertile gametes, and cross normally. However, the ones that became an international weed are triploid.  

Dandelion flowers, whether sexual or apomictic, produce enough nectar to attract bees, flies, and butterflies. The apomicts do not need to be pollinated, so this is interpretted as a trait that was important for their ancestors but is not useful at present. It feeds insects and apparently is not much of a burden to the dandelions. 

Triploids evolve more slowly than diploids because they clone, not cross, but clones pick up mutations and of necessity pass them on to their decendants. Triploid dandelions are not identical, but rather are made of all kinds of local lineages that differ slightly, due to those accumulated mutations, from each other. Tidy botanists would love to divide up common dandelions many different species, but where do you stop with separating clones? Ten genes different? Two? One? And most of those differences require DNA testing to detect. So they grumble but lump them all, all across North America, the European founders, and all the other places in the world they have colonized, as one species, Taraxacum officinale.

The name dandelion is a version of the French, "dent de lion", lion's tooth, generally read as meaning the indentations of the leaves, but for some people, the jagged look of the flowers. They have dozens of common names, including blowball (for the seed head) and piss-a-bed (eaten, the plant is a strong diuretic). The name Taraxacum has been traced back through Rome and Greece and Arabic to the Persian talkh chakok, meaning, "a bitter herb." The species epithet officinale means "of the office", the herbalist's office, so, of a group of similar species, officinale means that this one is the medicinal plant.

Currently usually treated as an annoying weed, dandelions have been gathered and grown by humans for millennia. They are completely edible: leaves, roots, flowers. The leaves are bitter but that can be treated by rinsing three times while cooking, choosing the young leaves in the spring, or buying cultivated varieties. The roots can be cooked and eaten. Flowers are made into dandelion wine (one of the best of the home-made wines I ever made.)

They have an equally long history as a medicine. They will induce urination. They contain antioxidants and were used to reduce inflammation. They are rich in vitamins and minerals and have often been used as a general tonic. People undoubtedly carried them around the world as a reliable food plant and a handy home remedy. All of their virtues remain, but dandelions have largely been replaced by other products.

This is a plant you can encounter all over the world. There are some 60 species in the genus Taraxacum and plants in several related genera look similar enough to be called wild dandelions. All look very similar, more similar than say, a group of Penstemon or Salvia species. But common dandelion's relatives grow in native ecosystems, not in lawns, parking lots, and flowerbeds, so they are much harder to encounter.  

Yes, they are ordinary, but, visiting distant lands where the plants are strange, I have found it comforting to recognize a common dandelion.

Comments and corrections welcome. 

References

Broulliet, L. 2020. Taraxacum F. H. Wiggers. Flora of North America link (Accessed 12/13/25)

Broulliet, L. 2020. Taraxacum officinale F. H. Wiggers. Flora of North America link (Accessed 12/13/25)

Many wonderful blogs cover other aspects of dandelions

Awkward Botany. 2018 Eat Weeds: Dandelion Flowers. Awkward Botany blog. link (Accessed 12/16/25)

Awkward Botany. 2019 The Flight of the Dandelion. Awkward Botany blog. link (Accessed 12/15/25)

Dandelion. Milk and Honey Herbs. A collection of uses link (Accessed 12/14/25)

Flower Chimp. 2005. The Meaning of Dandelions and Symbolism. link  (Accessed 12/14/25)

Saeed, A. 2025. The Garden Professors. An Ode to Dandelion The Garden Professors link (Accessed 12/14/25)

Sanchez, A. 2007. Ten things you might not know about dandelions. Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners link (Accessed 12/14/25)

Sansone, A. E. 2024. All the Symbolism and Meanings of a Dandelion. Woman's Day Magazine link (Accessed 12/14/25)

Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist
More at awanderingbotanist.com
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