First, the yellow dandelion blooms, and after the petals have dried up, the green part of the stem closes up on the flower. Second, the white puffballs develops and opens up into the puffy dandelions that are beautiful to see and fun to blow the seeds away from the stem. The seeds take root and they begin the cycle again.
Dandelions are considered weeds and pests, but they are an important food source for birds, bees, and insects.
p.s. I’m still learning, so if you have more information about dandelions’ life cycle, please let me know in the comments. Thank you in advance.
Thank you, Cee, for hosting! Thank you, dear readers, for stopping by this weekend. I hope you all have a great evening and a happy start to a new week. 🙂
18 responses to “FOTD: 3-10-’24. Dandelions’ life cycle”
Nice you sharing dandelions’ life cycle.
I like the plant life cycle. Change & cover the flower. Nice capture the flower pic.
I’ve never really thought about how, but I remember sticky fingers from picking them to blow the clocks off! Thanks, and a happy, healthy week to you too, Esther.
I never understood why my mother called those pretty yellow dandelions weeds.
Just so you know, these aren’t dandelions. They’re a species of plant in the genus Senecio, usually called groundsel. Like dandelions (and other plants in the Asteraceae, or sunflower family) they do produce fluff after they bloom. Some thistles do it, as well. Do you have the app called PictureThis? You can take a photo of a plant and get an ID. It’s not perfect, but it usually is correct when it comes to genus. I’d say it’s accurate about 95% of the time, which makes it a really useful tool.
When I took photos of your flowers and leaves with my phone, it suggested Senecio vulgaris, or the common groundsel. It’s a non-native that’s been introduced, and it’s found all along the California coast, from Oregon to Mexico.
Wow, thank you for sharing this information with me! I had no idea there was another plant that produced fluff like a dandelion from a yellow flower.
I usually use GoogleLens, but I was so convinced that this was a dandelion that I didn’t even bother. I will look into the app: PictureThis. Thank you for sharing that!!
Just seeing this my allergy aggravated.
Lol. It’s high pollen for us here and yep, allergy season is upon us.
Thanks for the info. Gorgeous photo too. :D 😀
You’re welcome, Cee! And thank you. I’m glad you like the photo.
A friend’s mom used to make dandelion wine. Extended the life cycle. 🙂
Oh, that sounds nice! It’s amazing how people make new things with plants and flowers.
Yes, it is and some people use them in salads as well.
I think you can use them for tea drinking too!
I didn’t know that – they are versatile. I always have a lot of them. But I also see a few dogs in the neighborhood pass by. 🙂 And raccoons, possums, groundhogs, squirrels (sometimes rabbits, though I don’t see many these days) would be walking over the dandelions, so I have to pass. 🙂
Oh, Linda, dandelions you find on lawns are probably not safe!! Who knows what they’ve been exposed to.
My mom used to live in the country when she was growing up, so she knows a lot about plants and flowers and their benefits. Amazon sells dandelion tea…they have everything!
Yes, they tell you not to spray for the butterflies and bees and when I went to visit the alpaca farm a few years ago, the owner took me to see him scrape the honey off the honeycombs and when he opened it up, all the bees were dead in the honeycomb. He cursed and said it was all the pesticide being sprayed. That’s great your mom knows about natural plants and flowers and I have green tea that I promise myself I will drink and why don’t I get it down? Amazon does have everything!
Oh, that stinks with the pesticides!! I’d be upset too if my bees died from it and honeycomb supply diminished.
Amazon has everything! I can even find Korean snacks and foods and vegetable seeds. Amazon has their own clothing line too called Amazon essentials. It’s not bad quality for a good price.
Yes, he was really upset as I stood there ready to sample a swipe of honey and take some photos and they were all dead.