Taraxacum Officinale / Dandelion Stock Photography

Araxacum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae which consists of species commonly known as dandelion. They are native to Eurasia and North America, but the two commonplace species worldwide T. officinale and T. erythrospermum, were introduced from Europe and now propagate as wildflowers. They have very small flowers collected together into a composite flower head. Each single flower in a head is called a floret. Many Taraxacum species produce seeds asexually by apomixis, where the seeds are produced without pollination, resulting in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant.