Taraxacum officinale aggr.

Info Flora treats common dandelion as an aggregate, Taraxacum officinale aggr., rather than a single species.

In the common dandelion group (Taraxacum sect. Taraxacum), sexual diploid plants can coexist with triploid apomicts in stable mixed populations.

Info Flora gives the main flowering period as April to May, with some flowering continuing until October.

In Switzerland dandelions grow in fertile meadows, at path edges and in arable fields, up to the subalpine or alpine belt.

In a UK study of sown urban meadows in four cities, Taraxacum agg. was one of the top weed species for nectar sugar, at an estimated 2137 micrograms per flower head per 24 hours, more than any sown species.

The same UK study estimated 2.8 microlitres of pollen per Taraxacum agg. flower head per 24 hours, among the highest values for unsown species.

The UK authors included weeds in their surveys because, as they note, weed species such as dandelions can provide significant resources to pollinators.

BWARS reports a record from South Glamorgan, Wales, of both sexes of the plasterer bee Colletes cunicularius visiting dandelion flowers, presumably only for nectar.

The Baden-Württemberg bee forage catalogue names dandelion meadows as an example of the mass flowering of many identical nectar rich flowers that large honey flows depend on.

The LAVES bee institute lists dandelion honey among blossom honeys whose high glucose content makes them crystallise.

Apomictic dandelions produce seed offspring of the mother's genotype without needing pollination.