Dandelion

How to recognise it

Habit

Perennial rosette plant, 10–40 cm tall in flower; all parts with white milky sap.

Leaf

In a rosette, oblong, 5–30 cm, deeply and irregularly toothed with backward-pointing lobes; hairless or slightly hairy.

Flower

Golden-yellow head of 3–5 cm, made only of ray florets, on a hollow, leafless stalk. Outer bracts turned down. Opens in the morning and closes in the evening and in rain.

Fruit/Seed

Round seed clock: each achene carries a little parachute of white hairs on a fine stalk and can drift a long way.

Roots

Thick, fleshy taproot, often more than half a metre deep; broken pieces grow into new plants.

Confusion with

Cat’s-ear and hawkweeds have branched or hairy, solid stems. Smooth hawk’s-beard has several smaller heads per stem. Colt’s-foot flowers as early as March on scaly stalks, before the leaves appear.

Flowering: March–October · Pruning: June and September

Why grow it?

• One of the most important spring flowers: plenty of nectar and pollen for honeybees, bumblebee queens, mining bees and hoverflies.
• Goldfinches, sparrows and finches eat the seeds from the seed clocks.
• The leaves feed the caterpillars of various moths, as well as rabbits and guinea pigs.
• Young leaves are edible in salads; the flowers are made into dandelion syrup, and the roasted root was once used as a coffee substitute.
• The deep taproot loosens compacted soil and brings up minerals.
• Blowing seed clocks: a plant through which generations of children discover nature.

Dandelion: where does it grow best?

• In the wild: grassland, pastures, road verges, dykes, field edges, waste ground and between paving and stones.
• Fertile, moist to fairly dry soil; tolerates mowing, trampling and compaction.
• Sun to partial shade; it flowers most freely in full sun.
• In the garden: in a flowery lawn, a hay meadow, along a path or in a sunny wild corner.

Goes well with

• Daisy: White and yellow together in a flowery lawn.
• Cuckooflower: Pale lilac flowers in April–May in the same damp grassland.
• Bugle: Blue spikes at the same time, low in the grass.
• White clover: Takes over the flowering in the lawn in June, for bees and bumblebees.

Dandelion: when and how to plant it?

1. It usually turns up by itself, as the seed blows in from everywhere. Simply leave the rosettes that appear where they are welcome.
2. If you want to sow, buy seed of native origin from a wild-plant seed supplier, or collect ripe seed yourself.
3. Sow in March–May or August–September on a bare patch in the lawn or border, press in and do not cover.
4. Keep the soil moist until the seedlings appear, after 1–3 weeks.
5. Do not sow or plant it in a vegetable bed: the taproot is hard to get out again.
6. Never dig up plants from the wild: sowing works better, and the taproot rarely survives being dug up.

Care

Mowing

Mow the lawn less often in April and May, or leave strips unmown, so the dandelions can flower. In a hay meadow, mow in June and September.

Water

Not needed; the taproot draws water from deep down.

Feeding

Not needed. On very rich soil it grows large and coarse.

Self-seeding

For fewer seedlings, mow or snip off the faded heads as soon as they close, before they turn into clocks.

Digging out

Lift unwanted plants with a narrow weeding tool, with as much root as possible; best done after rain.

Tip: In April and May, mow your lawn only every three to four weeks: the dandelions can flower and you get one of the best spring bee plants in your garden for free.

Pruning and mowing

Pruning months: June and September.

When: Mow only after the main flowering, in June, and again in September.

How:

• Mow a flowery lawn or meadow at 5–8 cm and remove the cuttings.
• Snip off faded, closed heads before they turn into clocks if you want to limit self-seeding.
• In a wild corner, leave a few seed clocks for goldfinches and sparrows.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

Pick ripe seed in May–June and sow it at once; it germinates quickly.

Root cuttings

A 5 cm piece of taproot, set upright in the soil in spring with the top just below the surface, will sprout again.

Dandelion: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −30 °C.

• In mild winters the rosette stays partly green; in hard frost the leaves die back and the taproot regrows in March.
• Fully hardy: the taproot survives frost down to about −30 °C.
• In March it is among the first flowers for bumblebee queens emerging from hibernation.

Diseases and pests

• Too many in the lawn: Lots of dandelions point to a thin, compacted or too closely mown sward. Mow a little higher, reseed bare patches with grass and dig out unwanted rosettes.
• Seed in the vegetable garden: Seed blows into vegetable beds. Hoe off seedlings while they are small, when the taproot is still short.
• Sap stains: The white sap stains hands and clothes brown. Wear gloves when picking.
• Powdery mildew: White powder on the leaves in dry summers. Harmless; leave it.

Through the year

• March: First flowers for bumblebee queens. You can sow.
• April: Full flower. Mow the lawn less often.
• May: Seed clocks. Collect seed; goldfinches feed on it.
• June: First cut in a hay meadow, remove the cuttings.
• July: Late flowers. Dig out where it is not wanted.
• August: Sow on bare patches.
• September: Second cut. A second, smaller flush of flowers.
• October: Last flowers.
• December: Dormant. The rosette lies flat on the ground.

Did you know?

• The French ‘dent-de-lion’, lion’s tooth, refers to the toothed leaves and gave us the English name dandelion. The French name ‘pissenlit’ recalls its old reputation as a diuretic.
• The dandelion usually forms its seed without fertilisation: each seed is a clone of the mother plant. That is why specialists recognise dozens to hundreds of ‘microspecies’.
• In 2018 researchers discovered that a stable vortex of air forms above the seed’s parachute, keeping it aloft for longer.