Common Dandelion
Scientific Name: Leontodon hispidus L.
Family: Asteraceae
MORPHOLOGY
Growth habit and size: Perennial herbaceous plant, 10-40 cm tall, with an oblique, truncated rhizome, and more or less thick secondary roots. An extraordinarily polymorphic plant, especially regarding the shape and hairiness of leaves and involucres.
Stem: Much longer than basal leaves, leafless.
Leaves: (1-2.5 x 4-15 cm) all in a basal rosette, tapering into a winged petiole, ± adhering to the ground and highly variable, oblanceolate-spatulate or linear-spatulate, nearly entire or variously toothed, from ± deeply sinuate-dentate to pinnatisect, glabrescent or almost always hirsute, scabrous.
Flowers: Hermaphroditic flowers, all ligulate, bright yellow, dark at the center before full anthesis, the peripheral ones generally reddish on the outside. It blooms between May and October.
Fruits and seeds: The fruit is a cylindrical cypsela (achene) of 6-7 mm, without a beak, slightly tapering at the apex, longitudinally grooved with weak transverse wrinkles, topped by a dirty-white or reddish pappus with hairs in two series: the inner ones plumose, dilated at the base, the outer ones shorter, simple.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
This plant grows in sunny areas, preferably in calcareous soils, from 0 to 2,700 m. It is indifferent to the substrate and widespread throughout Italy except Sardinia.
USE
The young leaves are often eaten raw in salads or cooked in omelets and rustic soups. They also have a diuretic action. The root is sometimes roasted and used as a coffee substitute. Before taking any plant-based product (medicinal or non-medicinal) for therapeutic or similar purposes, it is always advisable to consult a doctor.
Photo: Kindly provided by Claudio Farinati
