This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.
🐝🦋 Popular pollinator attractor
▷ IDENTIFICATION🔍
Common Name: Dandelion
Botanical Name: Taraxacum officinale
Family: Aster family (Asteraceae)
Herbaceous perennial for Zones 2 to 11
PRECAUTION: May interact with antibiotic, anticoagulant, diabetes, and other medications. Not appropriate for all, consider consulting a healthcare professional. See section “ADDITIONAL INFORMATION > Animal Toxicity and Medicine Interactions”.
❗Children, pregnant, or breastfeeding: This plant may be harmful if used internally for young children, epileptic, pregnant, or breastfeeding people. Research or speak with a healthcare professional. 🚼
▷ OTHER NAMES & LOOKALIKES 🏷️
Other Names 🏷️
◦ Tanpopo (タンポポ) in Japan
Lookalikes 🔎
◦ Cat’s Ear (Hypochaeris radicata): Similar appearance with a basal rosette of leaves and yellow flowers.
◦ Sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus): Common lookalike with white sap and leaves with deeply lobed, jagged edges.
◦ Hawkweed (Hieracium): Herbaceous perennial that looks similar with a basal rosette of leaves with much smaller yellow flowers.
▷ APPEARANCE 🪞
Plant Description🌿🗒️
Common herb that grows prolifically throughout the world. Leaves grow in a basal rosette pattern, are oblong-shaped, have deeply lobed and jagged edges, reaching 17 3⁄4″ length and 4″ width. Each flower stalk is hollow, 3″ to 12″ tall, exuding a white sap when broken. Flowers are yellow, composite with many tiny yellow florets, ⅘” to 1⅖” diameter. After flowers are spent, the fluffy, sphere-shaped seed head is formed. This plant grows like a weed, it is a nutritious addition for the garden and could replace ground cover around trees to help the soil retain water. Seeds may survive in the soil for 1 to 5 years, only a few survive to the next season in a nurturing environment.
Dimensions, Root Depth, and Spacing 📏↔️
Height: 2″ to 24″
Width: 4″ to 12″
Root Depth: Commonly 6″ to 18″, may reach 10′ to 15′; Ideal minimum container size 7 gallon or 8 gallons. Larger containers allow plants to grow taller and wider!
Spacing: 12″ apart
Flower Season and Fruit or Seed 🌻🍎🫘
Flower: Yellow flowers from Spring to Fall
Seed: Tiny, light brown, elongate oval seeds, ¼” length
▷ REPRODUCTION🌱
Sexuality: Asexual; Apomixis, a process allowing the plant to clone itself without fertilization.
Pollination: Dandelion
Growth Rate: Fast
Propagation:
◦ Roots: Carefully dig up plant. Select healthy stems that are connected to roots, divide them in to separate plants, and cut off dead leaves and stems. Try to have at least 1 leaf for each root, if not the roots will grow back the foliage eventually.
◦ Cuttings: Not applicable
Seed Germination: Cold stratification for seeds either dry or in a moist environment in the fridge for 10 to 60 days, depending on the variety, may speed up germination. Soil pH 6 to 8.5 at preferably 41°F to 75°F, kept moist, however not wet or dry. Plant seeds ⅛” to ¼” deep, emerges 14 to 21 days after being sown. Germination rate of 80% to 90% (depending on producer).
Indoor Planting: Grow plant for 1 year prior to transplanting outside 10 weeks after last frost date.
Outdoor Planting: Plant seed 2 weeks after last frost date.
▷ REQUIREMENTS❤️
Sunlight, Water, Fertilizer, and Pruning ☀️💧✂️
Sunlight: Prefers 6 hours full sun, tolerates partial shade
Note: Avoid aerial watering, which encourages fungal growth and disease.
Outdoor Watering: Water regularly during Summer (every 2 to 3 days) and less frequently in the Winter (once a week). Tiny pots and K-cup seed starters need water every day during Summer and every 2 days during Winter. Small pots require watering more often, especially if exposed to full sun, while large pots and shaded pots need less water.
Indoor Watering: Deep and infrequent, allowing for soil to dry on the top layer prior to more water.
Drought Resistance: Moderately drought tolerant
Fertilizer: In the Spring, Summer, and Fall, apply fertilizer. Scatter evenly at the base of plants, avoiding clumps of fertilizer and preventing contact with stalks and stems. Large clumps of fertilizer won’t evenly supplement nutrients into the entire soil surface after it mixes with water from rain or irrigation. Fertilizer clumps around the base of plants make cause the main stalk to rot or have contact burns, which could damage or kill the plant. Do not throw fertilizer over plant tops, as the clumps of fertilizer caught in between leaf nodes and on foliage may either burn or rot the foliage.
Soil, Planting, and Environment 🌄🏞️🏜️
Soil: Prefers moist, rich, well-drained soil. Tolerates many substrates such as sand, loam, and clay, dislikes high phosphorus and calcium
pH: Prefers 6.5 to 6.8, tolerates 4 to 8
Planting: When planting a potted plant, dig a hole that’s as deep as the pot and as wide as the root base. For plants with wide roots, dig a hole that is twice the width of the pot and gently space out the root system and then cover with soil to promote healthy growth. Burying tangled roots could cause health issues or stunted growth. The soil should be gently pressed in or watered in to fill the air pockets, preventing soil from collapsing in when watering or raining. Unplanted roots add to the stress of plants and could cause health problems or diseases. Cover every root with soil and smooth the soil’s surface.
Habitat: Native to Eurasia, located all over the world.
Temperature Preference and Temperature Tolerance🌡️
Temperature: 15°F to 75°F; Mulch roots to retain water and prevent evaporation.
Heat Tolerance: 95°F; Moderately drought tolerance
Cold Tolerance: 41°F
Salt, Wind, and Pollution Tolerance 🧂💨 ☣️
Salt Tolerance: Low tolerance
Wind Tolerance: High tolerance
Pollution Tolerance: High tolerance
▷ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION📚
Description 📝
Resistant to mowing and trampling, each plant may produce 2,000 seeds that are easily dispersed by the wind. Traditional medicine and food source used by ancestors. Pollinators rely on dandelions to stay alive while other plants hibernate during the Winter and early Spring, please keep them in your landscape. Landscapes covered in dandelions depicts soil characteristics, such as compacted soil, disturbed soil, nutrient deficiency, poor drainage.
Attract and Repel Wildlife🐝🦋🐦🐌🪰🐇🦌
Food source for deer, rabbits, rodents, and other wildlife.🦌🐇🐁
Attracts: Bees, butterflies, moths, other insects.
Repels: Not applicable
Diseases and Pests🐜🦠
Note: Proper care keeps plants resilient and healthy, preventing diseases and pests. This list details the potential threats, specific diseases and pests vary depending on environmental climate.
Diseases:
◦ Blight: Bacterial disease that may cause the plant to wither and die, more common in wetter environments and high humidity.
◦ Powdery Mildew: Fungal disease that causes brown spots on the leaves of the plant, more common in wetter environments and high humidity.
Pests:
◦ Aphids: Small, soft-bodied sucking insects which pierce plant tissues and draw out the juices.
◦ Mealybugs: Mealybugs feed on the juices from leaves and stems of plants, damaging a wide variety of host plants.
◦ Scale: Parasite that infest a plant’s leaves and stems and suck sap from plants through their mouth parts. Heavy infestations cause yellowing or wilting of leaves, stunting or unthrifty appearance of the plants, and eventually death of all or part of the plant.
◦ Spider Mites: They feed by bruising plant cells with their small, whiplike mouthparts and ingesting the sap. Spider mites produce a fine silk webbing, often found at leaf nodes or the undersides of leaves, which may kill plants or cause serious stress to them.
Animal Toxicity and Medicine Interactions ☠️❤️🩹
Animal Toxicity: Safe for dogs, cats, and horses.
Medicine Interactions:
Individuals may have a sensitivity or allergies to dandelion, consult a healthcare professional first and proceed at own risk.
◦ Anticoagulant and antiplatelet medicine (Blood thinners): Dandelion root might slow blood clotting. Taking dandelion root with medications that slow blood clotting might increase the risk of bruising and bleeding.
◦ Diabetes medication: Dandelion might lower blood sugar levels. Taking dandelion along with diabetes medications might cause blood sugar to drop too low. Monitor blood sugar closely.
◦ Antibiotics (Quinolone): Dandelion might decrease how much antibiotic the body absorbs. Taking dandelion with certain antibiotics might decrease antibiotic effectiveness.
◦ Medications changed by the liver (Cytochrome P450 1A2 [CYP1A2], Glucuronidated Drugs): Dandelion might change how quickly the liver breaks down medications prone to being changed or broken down by the liver. This could change the effects and side effects of these medications.
◦ Water pills (Potassium-sparing diuretics): Dandelion contains significant amounts of potassium. Some water pills increase potassium levels in the body. Taking water pills with dandelion might cause too much potassium to be in the body.
Use and Harvest⚕️🌾
❗Never ingest essential oils, instead use organic fresh or dried herbs.
Use:
◦ Flowers: The mildly sweet, crunchy flowers may be eaten in salads, added to soups, or steeped for beverages to impart a floral flavor and nutrients. Flower buds may be pickled.
◦ Leaves: Use raw in salads, soups, sandwiches, beverages, and herbal tea. Leaves harvested in the Spring and young leaves are the best choice for culinary use.
◦ Roots: May be eaten raw, roasted, or added to soups. Dried, ground dandelion root may be used for tea or as a coffee substitute.
Side effects: Uncommon side effects are allergic reactions, stomach upset, heartburn, and diarrhea.
Essential Oil: Click Here for Precautions, Instructions, and Dilution Ratios
Benefits: Antioxidant (protects cells), anti-inflammatory (reduces internal and external swelling), anticancer, detoxifying, strengthens immunity, improves circulation, helps diabetes, digestion, constipation, UTI (urinary tract infection), muscle aches, weight loss, may reduce tumors, increases urination and appetite, regulates digestion, blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney function, liver function. Leaves are rich in vitamin A, vitamins A, C, and K, calcium, iron, and potassium.
Dosing: Use the entire plant fresh for food, a maximum of 1 cup each day for adults. Enjoy warm tea steeped for 5 to 10 minutes. Consider taking supplements for health. ½ teaspoon to 2 teaspoons for medicinal use each day with adults.
Click Here for How To Harvest, Dry, and Properly Store Herbs and Seeds
Harvest: Never harvest more than 20% of a plant’s leaves or roots!
◦ Flowers: From Spring to Summer.
◦ Leaves: In the early Spring.
◦ Roots: From Fall to Spring. Dig the roots up, scrub away dirt, dehydrate, and store in an airtight container.
◦ Seeds: Harvest the fluffy seed heads from Spring to Fall. Follow harvesting techniques in the link above to extract and properly store the seeds.
Personal Experience: If any.
Aroma, Flavor, and Culinary Combinations🧼🍴
Does flowering stage impact leaf flavor?
Aroma: Subtly sweet floral
Flavor: Flower is sweet and crunchy; Leaf is herbaceous and slightly bitter; Root is earthy
Culinary Combinations: Compliments herbs and spices (thyme, rosemary, oregano, cilantro, parsley, sage, cardamom, coriander, chives, ginger), quinoa, whole wheat enriched pasta, wild rice, beans (sugar snap peas, green beans, chickpeas [garbanzos], black, pinto), legumes (lentils, mung beans), tofu, tempeh, mushrooms, nuts (roasted cashews, almonds, walnuts, pecans, and pine nuts), vegetables (arugula, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Winter squash [pumpkin, butternut squash, acorn squash], Summer squash [zucchini, straightneck, and crookneck], sweet potato, red potato, white potato, eggplant, zucchini, garlic, lemongrass, bell pepper, carrot, beet, asparagus, brussels sprouts, radish, tomato, and cucumber), and fruits (avocado, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, apricot, mango, citrus [lemon and lime], and figs)
Click Here to explore a comprehensive list of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients with function explanations, deficiency or excess symptoms, and vegan food source rankings (high, medium, low)
History 📜
Ancient civilizations like the Romans, Egyptians, and Greeks used dandelions as a food source and medicine to help many conditions.
Lifespan⏳
10 years longevity for each plant’s life expectancy.
Vegan Botany 