Taraxacum officinale

Common dandelion

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Common dandelion is a naturalized perennial found in California Floristic Province and Great Basin regions in disturbed areas at elevations up to 3,300 meters. Flowering throughout the entire year, this plant produces bright yellow flowers in distinctive round heads with multiple ray florets. Growing with multiple slender green stems from a deep taproot, it forms dense rosettes of leaves up to 20 centimeters tall. Its leaves are broadly oblanceolate to obovate, deeply toothed with wide, irregular lobes that can be sharply cut or dentate, creating a jagged and distinctive leaf profile. The fruit develops as an olive to straw-colored seed head with small seeds that disperse easily in the wind, allowing the plant to spread rapidly across disturbed landscapes.

Habitat: Abundant. Esp disturbed areas

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 3300 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, GB

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.