Identifying Dandelion

Before you say it, I know I know. How do I not know how to identify dandelions?

Hear me out. I've been born and raised in Texas and growing up I always heard the word dandelion be thrown out for this monstrosity.

In my early introduction to all things gardening, homesteading, foraging, embracing weeds, whatever you want to call it, I read multiple times how dandelion leaves are edible and quite nutritious for you. So of course like a dingbat I tried eating that thing. Luckily I barely ate any because it later gave me miserable cramps... Hurray for almost poisoning myself!

However, now I'm kind of scared of any talk of foraging and eating more unusual foods for fear of misidentifying a plant even if I'm like 99.99% sure. (That oxalis my daughter loves to eat IS safe, right? lol)

And on that same note, I was perusing the natural medicine pep and saw the things for fixing dandelion roots remedies. I would love to try these out... but now I'm having a dandelion crisis and don't trust myself to be able to say "yes, this is dandelion" (trauma, much?)

Can any of you lovely people give me a dummies guide to finding dandelion? I think I had some REAL dandelion flowers in the yard, but like I said.. I don't trust myself :)

And I sure hope those were real dandelions because I blew the seeds all over the place!

In the mean time, I'll keep pulling up all the prickly lettuce I find as revenge.

Hmm, just realized Wikipedia said it's edible and medicinal.

Makes me wonder why it gave me such bad cramping! Ugh.
I was using it as a pre-meal bitter when I did eat it, just one leaf at a time. (We don't spray chemicals but do live in a suburban neighborhood)

It is hard for me to understand a person not knowing how to identify a dandelion until I moved to the hill country.  I have not seen dandelion since moving here.  We have wild lettuce or sow thistle that could be misidentified as dandelion as the flower is very similar.  

I know both are medicinal so they probably can be eaten with side effects.

I can only id plants once they bloom and then a person might have to let them go to seed.

I have tried eating flowers of different plants but have not tried leaves because I am rather particular about only liking iceberg lettuce.  I will eat romaine if mixed with the iceberg lettuce.  Other lettuce that I have grown, I still have to mix with iceberg lettuce.

Here are a couple of threads you might enjoy:

https://permies.com/t/158138/kitchen/Herbal-Medicine-Lesson-Dandelion

https://permies.com/t/153991/kitchen/Ubiquitous-Dandelion-Medicinal-Herb-Food

I would suggest posting a picture of the plant you tried eating to see if it is a dandelion or a look-a-like.

I'm not an expert on dandelions, foraging, or plant ID. Just an amateur permie who likes Dandelions. So take my post with a grain of salt.

There are a lot of plants that do dandelion things. A lot of thistles and sow thistles and such have flowers that turn into seedheads that turn white and you can blow them around the place.

Dandelion flowers are usually yellow or white. The tips of the petals are squarish or almost two pronged. Look at the various flowers in the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum

The leaves typically stay close to the ground and in one "level".

When it comes to wild edibles, I rely heavily on Samuel Thayers books. He writes only about plants he has personally harvested, prepared and eaten. I think he has three books now. I need that third one...

For stuff that are not in the books, I frequent Green Deane's site. Eat The Weeds. He has hundreds of detailed articles there. The link should take you to the one on dandelions. Free in this case is amazing quality and details.

Green Deane does say that there are no poisonous look alikes. You may have a sensitivity to that plant that you did try. Dandelions leaves remain as a rosette at the base of the plant. The leaves do have stems, though they are short. The leaves never grow at a height along the length of the stem. I'm at a loss for describing it further.

The wild lettuces, chicory, maybe sow thistle, has similarities when still at ground level. They are not poisonous, so they can also be eaten. Ahem, by most of us.

A dandelion Taraxacum officinale Always has yellow composite flowers, they grow singly on a hollow stalk which is nearly hairless and feels smooth to the touch, they grow from the middle of the rosette of leaves, (there may be many flowers but only one per stalk) the leaves are green and deeply toothed, they have no real stalk and always come from the middle of the basal rosette. A dandelion never has leaves coming off a stalk
The picture here is a look alike it's a hawkweed, it has hairy stems, non toothed leaves and multiple flowers per stem. But don't worry it won't do you any harm if you mistake it for a dandelion.


Dandelions even those that are Taraxacum officinale are quite variable the leaves may have different shapes, different numbers of teeth and the flowers can be more or less "full"

There are to my knowledge no dangerous plants you can confuse with a dandelion

Skandi Rogers wrote:(there may be many flowers but only one per stalk)  

I’m glad to hear that. I remember reading something about how they have only one flower so I got extra confused when I came about what seemed like dandelion (the one layer of leaves close to the ground, short stalk with flower on top) but it had multiple stalks of flowers!

I’m very intrigued by the fact that the prickly lettuce gave me cramps since y’all are saying it’s edible. I guess each person truly is different!

At least I know I can eat dandelion because I got it in my CSA share one time :) So once I do feel confident identifying it, which I feel much better about after reading your comments, I know I can safely consume them.

Now I believe with certainty that those seeds I dispersed all over my yard were indeed true dandelions :)

Aside from dedicated foragers, I haven't yet met someone in my area who can positively identify dandelions, so don't feel bad that you couldn't either! I took a wild edibles workshop and learned that I was wrong when it came to identifying dandelions, too.

Skandi gave a great description. In my area, hawkweed and cat's ear are called dandelions, but a big difference is the bloom time. Dandelions prefer cooler weather. The first yellow flowers that I see in spring are usually dandelions, but the vast fields of yellow that show up mid-summer in full sun and 90+ degree weather are one of the look-alikes.