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Stuff That Looks Like Dandelions

© Gregg Pasterick

Working as a groundskeeper at a North Carolina acupuncture clinic last year, I found myself often bemused by the acupuncturist who, though she knew her Chinese herbs like nobody's business, was surprisingly unfamiliar with much of the native flora. Walking the grounds together one day, we came upon some Wood Poppies, which she wanted removed. "But those are Wood Poppies," I said with a hint of pleading in my voice. "They are?" she replied with little interest. "Yes," I answered emphatically. "Oh. Okay. If they're not dandelions then..." And her voice trailed off.

Anything yellow, in her mind, was a dandelion. This, though a little extreme in her case, is a common phenomenon. There are a large variety of wildflowers that bear a striking resemblance to dandelions, and are easy to misidentify. Consider this sampler of dandelion look-alikes, look-alikes to the uninitiated, anyway...

Spiny-leaved Sow Thistle, Wild Lettuce, Rattlesnake Weed, Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Two-flowered Cynthia, Prickly Lettuce, Yellow Hawkweed, Yellow Goatsbeard, Dwarf Dandelion, Fall Dandelion, Cat's-ear, Lamb Succory, Hairy Lettuce, Nipplewort, Canada Hawkweed, Rough Hawkweed, Panicled Hawkweed, Hairy Hawkweed, Smoothish Hawkweed, Seaside Dandelion, Scalebud, Desert Dandelion, Yellow Tackstem, Nodding Microseris, False Dandelion, Bristly Ox Tongue...if I were reading this list aloud I'd be getting hoarse. Anyway, this is just a sampler. The larder is full of dandelion look-alikes.

At a quick glance, the flowers of these many plants do look like dandelions, but it doesn't take much to begin to notice the differences. In some cases the size of the flower is a good hint your dandelion isn't a dandelion at all. Dandelion flowers get up to about 1 1/2" wide. The flowers of Yellow Goatsbeard (Tragopogon dubius) can be more than an inch wider than that. Wild Lettuce flowers (Lactuca canadensis) are only about 1/4" wide.

Another thing to look for is, how many flowers does the stalk bear? Dandelion stalks bear a single flower. The stalk of Yellow Hawkweed (Hieracium pratense) sports several dandelion-like flower heads. The same with Rattlesnake Weed (H. venosum).

Some differences require less 'effort' to notice. Height, for example. Dandelions grow to about 1 1/2' tall. Spiny-leaved Sow Thistle (Sonchus asper) can reach 6' in height. Wild Lettuce can grow as tall as a nose-bloodying 10'! Some of these many wildflowers have hairy stems, some are smooth as a baby's behind. Pointy sepals protrude from behind the petals of Yellow Salsify, giving that one away. And the basal leaves of Rattlesnake Weed are webbed with reddish-purple veins.

Goatsbeard

Yellow Hawkweed

Yellow Salsify

Spiny-leaved Sow's Thistle

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