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Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Cichorioideae
Tribe: Cichorieae
Subtribe: Crepidinae
Genus: Taraxacum
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) are such a common weed and one that most people would immediately recognise. They get their name fro their distinctive shaped leaves that are evocative of lion teeth (Dande meaning teeth and Lion, well, means lion).
This rosette shaped weed has distinctive toothed leaves and yellow flowers. The flowers are are followed by the familiar dandelion clocks which spread the seed far on the wind on a parachute like ball of fluff. These are in fact a collection of very small flowers that together form a composite flower head called a floret. Dandelions are tough, hence why they are so successful as a weed. No only do they have efficient seed dispersing capacities they are also very resilient, having a long tap root from which new plants can grow. This means that mowing the plant or removing the leaves will have a minimal effect on the flower, which will be back within flower by the end of the week.
Digging out the plants and removing all of the tap root will do the trick but this is a time consuming job and not always practical. Larger volume of weeds will require chemical control with glyphosate which can be applied during the growing season.
Dandelions
