Taraxacum tumentilobum

Taraxacum tumentilobum is one of the numerous apomictic microspecies that make up the Taraxacum officinale aggregate, the common dandelion complex, in the family Asteraceae. Like other members of the group it is a perennial, acaulescent herb growing from a stout, deep, milky-juiced taproot. The leaves form a basal rosette and are oblanceolate in outline, pinnately lobed with backward-pointing (runcinate) lobes, the precise depth and shape of the lobing being the kind of subtle character used to distinguish microspecies within the aggregate. Each solitary flower head is borne on a hollow, leafless scape and is composed entirely of bright yellow ligulate (ray) florets. After flowering the head matures into the familiar spherical seed-head of plumed achenes, each parachute-borne fruit dispersed by wind. It occupies grassland, lawns, roadsides and disturbed ground.