Taraxacum

Taraxacum is a genus of flowering plants, family Asteraceae, comprising the dandelions, with a near-cosmopolitan distribution absent only from tropical and polar areas; the two most widespread species, the common dandelion and the red-seeded dandelion, are European natives introduced to North America. Dandelions bear composite flower heads made of numerous small florets and reproduce asexually through apomixis, producing seeds without pollination so that offspring are genetically identical to the parent plant, which has made the genus taxonomically complex, comprising roughly 2,800 recognized microspecies worldwide. The plants are vital early-season nectar sources, disperse their seeds by wind on distinctive parachute-like structures, and the entire plant, leaves, stems, flowers and roots, is edible.