Key to Tasmanian Dicots
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Taraxacum officinale (Asteraceae) 2:387  
Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion) is a widespread and abundant rosette weed. It is almost ubiquitous in lawns and occurs widely in pasture, grassy road verges etc. The leaves are all in a basal rosette, and are soft, thin, quite light green and without conspicuous hairs. They are elongate, typically 10-20cm long and a few cm wide, with widely spaced, coarse, acute teeth. The flower heads are on the ends of sparsely hairy, elongate, hollow stalks. The flowers are yellow and all strap-like. The fruit are in spherical heads, with each fruit with a long (often about 1cm long) narrow section between the body of the fruit and the conspicuous pappus. The leaves and flower stalks exude a milky sap when damaged.

 

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