How To Identify Dandelions

I posted previously about Dandelions, how they may be very good food to eat, being both high in nutrients, and good for your health. As promised, here is a (somewhat complex perhaps) guide to figuring what is and isn't a Dandelion. Following the table, I treat each group in details. The table can serve as a good reference - even though it is, as yet, incomplete.
Please note that there may be other plants growing in Ireland which may superficially resemble Dandelions, also that Dandelions have up to 250 species growing in the UK and Irl, which would require someone well versed in their nuances to identify them (a similar story as the Brambles/Blackberries). The common Dandelion's scientific name (Taraxacum officinale), thus, is given as an agglomeration of the species. It technically doesn't really exist.

	Cat's Ear	Hawk's Beard	HawkBit	Hawkweed	True Dandelion
Stem branching	some	frequent	never	frequent	never
Stem fluted*	no	deeply			no
Stem hollow	no	?	no		yes
Stem Latex	?	?	no	yes	yes
Leaves	Rosette + stem bracts.	Rosette + stem leaves (latter deeply lobed, spiny with auricles)	Rosette only - long and straight leaves	Rosette and often stem too. Depends on species.	Rosette only
Leaf lobes	rounded	Deep lobes	Bluntly lobed		toothed/unlobed
Leaf midrib	Tinged purple	red			Varying colour
Hairs	Leaves only	Rough – bristly!	v. hairy stem	variable	hairless
Outter Ray Florets*	orange/reddish stripe	orange/reddish stripe on some.		variable	normal yellow
Disk Florets*	In centre	Each with 2 hair-like projections	None (?)	none	none
Sepals	Of varying lengths, with scales	Same lengh with bracts beneath.	No scales		Same length; sometimes with bracts forming a ring
Fasciation*	Succeptable	?	?	?	Succeptable
Seed head	Brownish white	Slightly grey-white		White	White
Max height	60cm	65cm	50cm	variable	50cm
Edibility?	Yes	Yes, mildly bitter	Yes	At least one species edible.	Yes, almost always bitter

Table of some of the features of Dandelions and their look alikes

Cat's Ear Example (source)

Cat's Ear: Smooth (Hypochaeris glabra – rare in Irl) or regular (H. radicata – freq in Irl). Perennial. Flowers rarely fully open (except maybe in strong sun) and have disk florets at the centre. The leaves of the 'normal' species are hairy, not those of the smooth species. Flowering stems have scale-like bracts (like cat's ears) just below the flower head, but no leaves except the basal rosette. The seed head ('seed clock') has an off-white, brownish colour. More information: WildFlowerFinder; Edibility and medicinal information: PFAF and MiddlePath. 

Hawk's Beard Example (source)

Hawk's Beard (Crepis spp.): Beaked, Rough, Smooth and March species are common in Ireland. Annual. Easily distinguished by a double row of spreading bracts below the sepals. 'Beaked' and 'Smooth' species have an orange-red stripe on the outer ray florets. Stem is often deeply fluted* with red tinge, or mostly red. Leaves with few but strong hairs (can pierce skin!). Few basal (rosette) leaves. More information: WildFlowerFinder. Apparently it is edible, but with little or no medicinal usage: PFAF.

Photo L. hispidus (source)

 HawkBit/Leontodon: Both Rough (Leontodon hispidus) and Lesser (L. saxatilis) Hawkbit are frequent in Ireland. Perennial. Possibly one of the closer 'look-alikes' to Dandelion in appearance, with similar diuretic effect and it is edible raw or cooked according to PFAF. Some distinguishing features include: forked (t-shaped) hairs, leafless stems - leaves only in rosette, like dandelion (and cat's ear but without bracts), no latex and undivided stems. 

 Photo H. umbellatum (source)

Hawksweed (Hieracium spp./agg.): There are many different Hawksweed species found in Ireland and more in Britain. They are a notoriously difficult group to classify. Some information on Wikipedia to illustrate this: Wikipedia also see anatomy. The good news is that they don't seem to be toxic (in case you mistake it for a dandelion or similar), with at least one species edible, according to PFAF. 

Photo Dandelion (source)

True Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale): Perennial, frequent throughout Ireland. Dandelions are best distinguished by a combination of: basal (rosette) leaves only – which are hairless and (usually) tooth-lobed; undivided flowering stems with no bracts or leaves – the stems being both hollow and latex containing; flowers contain ray florets only without red colouration – the sepals have the same lenght with bracts forming a ring around the base. The entire plant is usually hairless and usually bitter tasting. Dandelions have many edible and medicinal uses, see Plant For A Future page for more details: PFAF. Apparently there are up to 250 varieties/species belonging to 9 sections to be found (at least in the UK, 8 sections are found in Ireland), but being very similar they need an expert to distinguish. The significance of this is that it is, in theory, possible to find a dandelion flowering at any time of the year (however any given plant does not flower all year around!). More information on this at WildFlowerFinder.

Glossary 
Ray Florets:  "(in a composite flowerhead of the daisy family) Any of a number of strap-shaped and typically sterile florets that form the ray. In plants such as dandelions, the flowerhead is composed entirely of ray florets" – The Free Dictionary.com
Disk Florets: "(in a composite flowerhead of the daisy family) Any of a number of small, tubular, and usually fertile florets that form the disk. In rayless plants such as the tansy, the flowerhead is composed entirely of disk florets" – The Free Dictionary.com
Fluted Stem: Deep ridges and furrows running vertically up the stem.
Fasciation: where the normal flower development is interrupted (can be due to either a mutation, infection, herbicide use etc.) and so the flower develops in an oval form, or maybe as a double head. This is possible in many flowers, but common only in a few (such as Dandelion, Willow and Foxglove).

Winter Wilds

...and locals...
Last Saturday, I decided to see what I could find forage-able at this time of year. I wanted to make a wild food buffet salad for Kat who was returning after being abroad 3 weeks. I thought it'd be nice to present her local foods, to help her quickly feel 'at home' here, and maybe reduce jet-lag etc. However, when I went to the market to see what locally produced fruit and veg they had, I only ended up getting some carrots, potatoes and onion. Now is a rather slack period for gardening in the west of Ireland, but I thought I'd be able to find some winter cabbage or Brussels sprouts.
Anyway, I was quite surprised with some of the wild foods I found for foraging:

Wild 'Buffet' Salad

Ingredient list  by plate (starting with the bottom plate and moving clockwise):

Plate 1:

• Blackberries - at this time of the year! I never expected this, however their almost complete lack of taste kills the excitement.
• Heather (Ling) - this was more for decoration, but can be used for an infusion.
• Daisy - not only looks nice, but is good to eat too.
• Gorse flowers - removing the outer sepals, the tender flower is nice to eat with a beany taste (like vanilla to some).
• Snowberries - not very edible. These give you an upset stomach if you eat too much (toxins include sopanoids), but are ok to try one or two. The name really fits, I find, as not only are these found into the winter, but the inside flesh resembles for all the world like snow in appearance and texture. Be sure to research these before you risk trying them (See PFAF entry: Snowberry).
• Hawthorn Berries - I only found two and they seemed in quite a pathetic state - but it surprised me to find them at all this time of year!

Plate 2:

• Dandelion - leaves, flower and root - all good to eat. See my post on dandelions for more.
• Wild garlic bulbs - these are best used with something else due to their strong flavour, but can be used just as normal garlic cloves. Be careful harvesting as they look like toxic plants (such as Lilly of the Valley) when in flower.
• Plantain - Excellent medicinally and also good to eat - especially the smaller/younger leaves, which I placed on top.

 Plate 3:

• Wild Strawberry leaves (lower right) - these are better when younger, and not to be confused with barren strawberry with which it often grows. The leaves are also good as an infusion.
• Primrose leaves (upper right) - another great evergreen herb, but again the leaves are best younger. Also I find that dirt easily sticks to the leaf underside amongst all the veins.
• Wood Sage (middle) - Actually this doesn't taste or smell like sage, and its habitat is not restricted to woodlands. It is one of those plants not toxic but not edible either for its extreme bitter taste. I added it just to try. Apparently it is used as a hopps substitute (see PFAF entry: Wood Sage)
• Clover (lower left) - similar tasting to the Gorse flower, but more edible I think. It grows in most meadows and waste places - available all year around (if not grazed!).
• Sorrel (upper left) - this one is great to forage and have in salads all year around. Sadly I found but 3 leaves.

Plate 4: Some herbs from my garden: Thyme, Sage, Rosemary and Mint.
Plate 5: Carrot and onion locally grown (from market)

In the centre, in my Morter&Pestle, I have hazel nuts which I collected in September.

I had hoped to get more sorrel, and also some nettle, but the latter is kind of dying back at the moment.

Conclusion: It is not easy to offer a (nearly) complete wild meal such as this to someone not wont of eating wilds. I guess some of the tastes are a bit strange, and it is true that nowadays we are not often used to eating bitters (such as dandelion). I was asked several times: "But are you sure one can eat that?"

Eating Dandelions

'False Dandelion'

Can you tell a true Dandelion from the hundreds of 'pretenders'/look-alikes? If you are going to eat a wild plant, you need to be certain of what it is! Luckily in the case of Dandelions, all the close look-alikes are supposed to be edible. But what defines close? It depends on people actually - some similar plants can seem totally different to the trained eye. Anyway, a few years back, when I learned about the great health and nutritional value of dandelions, I wanted to eat some, so I tried to find out what what is not a dandelion. I was quite surprised to find that half of what I thought to be dandelions were actually just 'pretenders'. I will later post a guide to identifying true dandelions. For now though, lets look at why they are interesting...

"But they flower in summer - what use are they this time of year?"
Actually some species flower in winter (if it is mild) - but mostly, yes they flower in summer. However there are still the leaves and roots to be found at this time, which can be identified with a little care.
Recently, I came across an article on the Livestrong website talking about Dandelion as  a source of Vitamin D! I can't find the exact article again, but here's another talking about Vitamin D in Dandelions. Since we already have a lot of cloudy weather in Ireland and in the winter especially, a lack of vitamin D is more likely - which may be linked with Seasonal Affective Disorder among other things. If you are vegetarian/vegan, then sunlight and supplements may be your only source of Vitamin D. Since there is debate about the accuracy of vitamin D tests as well as the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation - all the more reason to be sure you get enough from natural sources. It is possible too (depending who you ask) that the vitamin D found in Dandelions may not be that usable by our body - but I think it is worth a try because there are hundreds of other good nutrients you'll get besides. Furthermore - by going to get some Dandelion, you are exposing yourself to sunlight (even if it is a cloudy day!).

There seems to be a lot of information on the internet about Dandelion. This page has many articles about the use of its root.

I hope that's convinced you of the value of this everyday garden weed. But do be careful, be sure you know what it is and that the surroundings are clean (free from chemicals etc.).

All parts of the Dandelion usually taste bitter - though this is less so in spring. Anyway, there are many things you can do with dandelion. Here's something I tried a few months ago - it seems the salt reduces the bitter taste a bit: Dandelion Root with Soya Sauce. Celtnet is a great website for wild food recipes. Next summer, when they are in flower, I intend to make Dandelion Jam/Jelly. I know, it sounds weird - but I'll let you know how it turns out. Meanwhile, you can find many other recipe ideas for Dandelions on the net.

And by the way - the photo is not a true dandelion, but probably either Cat's ear or Hawk bit - difficult to tell with only the top view (no leaves visible).