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Taraxacum officinale (Asteraceae)
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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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