Wikibooks: Horticulture/Taraxacum

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dent; Upernavik
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Horticulture/Taraxacum

weedbox Dandelion Image = Taraxacum sp upernavik 2007 07 30 1.jpg Binomial = Taraxacum spp . Type = Perennial Conditions = Sunny locations Seed Dispersal = Wind Germination Time = Germination Signal = Ripe Seed = Seed Banking = Vegetative Spread = None Allelopathy = A dandelion is a short plant usually with a yellow flower head and notched leaves. A dandelion flower head consists of many tiny flowers. The dandelion is native to Europe and Asia and has spread to many other places. The dandelion is also known by its generic name Taraxacum . In Northern areas and places where the dandelion is not native it reproduces asexually. The name dandelion is derived from the Old French dent de lion which is literally lion s tooth referring to the sharply lobed leaves of the plant. The English spelling reflects the French pronunciation at the time this French word was absorbed into English. The first written usage of the word occurs in an herbal dated 1373 but there is a 1363 document in which the word dandelion was used as a proper name (Willelmus Dawndelyon). In German the dandelion is called Löwenzahn which is also translated as lion s tooth. In modern French the plant is called pissenlit which means urinate in bed apparently referring to its diuretic properties. Likewise pissabeds is an English folkname for this plant and piscialletto is one of its folknames in Italian (with dente di leone meaning lion s tooth ). Similarly in Spanish it is known as the meacamas but also commonly diente de león . =Description= Taraxacum (the Dandelions ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family [[./Asteraceae/]]. They are tap rooted biennial or perennial herbaceous plants native to temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere of the Old World. The genus is taxonomically very complex with numerous macrospecies and polyploidy is also common over 250 species have been recorded in the British Isles alone (Richards 1972). Some botanists take a much narrower viewpoint and only accept a total of about 60 species. The leaves are 5 25 cm long ...