Habit: Taraxacum officinale grows as an annual to 50 cm in height when in flower. The leaves are arranged alternately, forming a basal rosette, to 30 cm in length, pinnatifid/dentate/lobed, ovate to obovate with an obtuse leaf apex. Leaves abaxially slightly pubescent. Stalks have a milky sap.
The flowering stalks are cymes to panicles terminating in heads. The heads are subtended by two series of involucral bracts (phyllaries). The calyx is modified as a ring of hairs (pappus). There are only perfect (disc) flowers. Each flower is subtended by a bract.
The complete, perfect, zygomorphic flowers have a corolla with 5 fused, yellow petals arranged in heads on peduncles to 50 cm high. There are 5 stamens fused at their base. The ovary is inferior with a single locule and ovule. The fruit is a ribbed achene at maturity that retains the modified calyx (pappus) as white, hairlike bristles on an elongated beak.
Habitat: Taraxacum officinale grows in Human Altered environments (yards, gardens, fields, waste areas, roadsides).
Distribution: Taraxacum officinale is NOT Native to the Lucayan Archipelago. It is native to Europe but is distributed worldwide as an introduced weed.
Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Taraxacum officinale is not known to be used medicinally in the Lucayan Archipelago.
The leaves are known to be edible.