Orange-flowered dandelion

Taraxacum croceiflorum is an orange-flowered dandelion, one of the many apomictic microspecies that make up the Taraxacum officinale aggregate of the daisy family (Asteraceae). Like other dandelions it is a perennial herb with a stout, fleshy taproot and a basal rosette of lobed, more or less runcinate (backward-toothed) leaves that exude a milky white latex when broken. From the centre of the rosette arise one or more hollow, leafless flowering stalks, each bearing a single composite head. As the epithet croceiflorum (saffron-flowered) suggests, the ligulate florets are a deep orange to saffron rather than the usual bright yellow. The head matures into the familiar globe of plumed achenes dispersed by wind.