Common name: Dandelion, Bathur (Urdu), Kanphul (Hindi)
Botanical name: Taraxacum officinale Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
Dandelion is a perennial plant growing almost everywhere, which can reach
38cm in height (15inches) This plant has only basal leaves. Each leaf is
toothed or lobed. The flowers have numerous parts and are up to 4.5cm wide
(1.75 inches) They are yellow. Blooms first appear in mid spring and continue
into early winter. Seeds are enclosed singly within fruiting bodies and are
attached to a long slender stalk that terminates in a parachute-like structure
called a pappus (see picture) Seeds are transported in the wind.
Euell Gibbons in his classic book Stalking the Wild Asparagus devotes
over four pages to the many tasty dishes that can be made from this common
plant while homeowners and greens keepers spend millions of dollars on toxins
to eliminate Dandelions from their lawns. Dandelion has enormous medicinal
value.
| Photographed in
Mussoorie |
Identification credit: Radhika Vathsan
|
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