Dandelion2

Please see also my page Dandelions

In the first two months of the growing season (June in the year 2023) Bonavista is decked out in my National Colours, to my great delight.

These two leaves were picked from the plant whose flowers grace the first image.

Google Images

I submit the first image to Google Images

My photo is shown on the left.

The common name is “Dandelion”. Ewe all knew that!

The Latin name is “Taraxacum platycarpum”

A similar plant is named Coltsfoot, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see dandelion images vary as we move from Bonavista to San Diego, as the species continue to evolve.

I think that for such a simple and common plant, the Latin name is probably correct.

Google Search

I use Google to search for the Latin name “Taraxacum platycarpum” . I enclose the two-word Latin name in quotes because I want to fin articles that use the two words as a phrase.

Wikipedia

The Wikipedia article tells me this . Also “A member of the Cichorieae tribe of the Asteraceae ”. The family Asteraceae ( /?æst?'re?si.i?, -si.a?/ ), alternatively Compositae, [5] consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales .

Please see Taxonomic rank .

The genus is Taraxacum; the species is platycarpum.

If we were building a catalogue we might set out a table like this:-

Native Plant Trust

Native plant trust has a page that holds an expert system Dichotomous Key to Families . This mechanism presents a series of questions; choosing one of the two answers leads you down the path to identification of the plant. For example with dandelions we know that they satisfy “Plants typically reproducing by seeds” rather than Plants not typically reproducing by seeds.

This takes us one level deeper to “Plants usually producing true flowers;” and hence to a deeper level “Leaf blades usually pinnately veined;”

Now here you may be flummoxed. What is a “pinnate” leaf? Now you need to master some terminology of botany, so you will either got to Google Search, or check to see if pinnate is in my Terminology page .

By the time I reach level 6 I am stumped. I do not know if dandelion flowers have an inferior ovary, or whether the flowers lack a perianth. Just how far do I wish to go in botany? Am I prepared to learn about “calyx and the corolla or tepals”? Are you?

Just so you know, it isn’t going to get any easier!

I am a trained computer programmer, not a botanist. Right now I do not want to learn a new scientific language.

I suspect that the genus and species names will serve me well for my needs.

Flora of Newfoundland and Labrador

Flora of Newfoundland and Labrador is another site that helps us to identify our plants.

Knowing “Taraxacum platycarpum” I find my way to Index to English Common Names

But this doesn’t have my Taraxacum platycarpum listed; I wonder why not?

I go look for the genus but do not see Taraxacum. At this stage I suspect that Dandelions are NOT native to Newfoundland, and are, frankly, just too common for this type of web site.

But that’s OK. I was using dandelion as a trial, because it is a plant that we all know, and we ought to be able to identify this plant, if nothing else.

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