Flowers

Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale F.H. Wigg. · common dandelion · Polish: Mniszek lekarski

Edible

Photo: Walther Otto Müller / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

How to identify it

Leaves in a basal rosette, deeply pinnately lobed.
White milky sap in all parts.
Leafless, hollow flower stalks, each with a single yellow flower head.
Fruits with white down — the ‘clocks’; flowers from April to August.

Where it grows

Meadows, grassland, roadsides and other ruderal sites, cultivated land and open woodland.

In the kitchen and the home medicine cabinet

Young leaves, picked in early spring before the buds appear, for salads (the bitterness is reduced by blanching, i.e. keeping the leaves shaded). The flower heads (picked without their stalks during flowering) are boiled with a lot of sugar into a syrup known as ‘dandelion honey’, and also made into flower wine. The buds used to be pickled like capers, and the roasted root (dug in autumn) was used as a substitute for chicory.

Caution Not to be confused with sow-thistle (Sonchus, called ‘mlecz’ in Polish) — a different, harmless genus. Dandelion accumulates metals, including toxic ones: do not pick beside roads, on urban lawns or on sprayed meadows. Dandelion preparations are not used when the bile ducts are obstructed; the bitter substances may cause stomach upset and heartburn in sensitive people; allergy is possible (daisy family).