Dandelions - mistakes in the field

Dandelions are ubiquitous plants, common in fields and gardens, and also both beloved and hated.  We love their fluffy fruiting heads with their wind-blown small parachute seeds.  It is probably one of the most well-known plants in society (except for some common ones that we grow on purpose).

However, not only dandelions have these types of fruits, and some of the popular photos of dandelions are actually other species. The most common mix-up is with Tragopogon species, goat beards. Both are members of the sunflower family, the Asteraceae.  How do you tell them apart?

Dandelion (Taraxacum)
from Lindman's flora, public domain.

The common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) has:

• yellow flowers (each head have many tiny, tiny flowers)
• leaves that are lobed with large teeth
• leaves in a rosette near the ground, no leaves on the flower stalk
• fruiting heads about 3-5 cm in diameter (up to 2 inches)
• the green bracts under the flowering  head are relatively short, and they barely just reach the full radius of the fruiting head.
• there are more seeds in each head

Note the difference in the leaves and bracts to the leaves of goat's beard.

In the sunflower family, each seed is also a fruit.  So a sunflower seed is a little 1-seeded nut.



Goatbeards (Tragopogon sp. ) have:

Goatsbeard (Tragopogon),
from Thomé (1885), public domain

• yellow or purple flowers (each head have many tiny, tiny flowers)
• leaves that do not have lobes, and are very long and narrow ending in a long sharp point
• leaves are present on the flower stalk
• fruiting heads usually over 5 cm (over 2 inches)
• the green bracts under the flowering  head are long, reaching beyond the full radius of the expanded fruiting head
• you can blow these seeds away too
• Other names for these plants are salsify and goat's beard. 

Below are some examples of stock photos that are sold as dandelion photos but actually are other species. Most photos marked as dandelions are correct, but a few are not. If you spend $40 and upwards on stock photos, I think you should assume you get the right species, don't you?

istockphoto for sale by user sunnybeach, marked as dandelion but showing goatsbeard.
Note the two long bracts hanging down from the fruiting head near the stem.
(Screenshot by BotanicalAccuracy.com, istockphoto image # 171660950.)

Another stockphoto, this time from Getty images, also showing goatsbeard (note long narrow and non-dented leaves). (Screenshot by BotanicalAccuracy.com, gettyimages photo # 128072731)

More examples on this Pinterest board: 'Dandelions' that are not real dandelions.

Artemisia, a spelling misery

The large genus Artemisia in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) contains some very potent plants and is well-known around the world for a variety of good and bad reasons.   Common English names include sagebrush, wormwood, and mugwort.

For people allergic to pollen, the weedy mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is probably a large cause of their respiratory problems in early fall.  For people suffering from malaria, the old Chinese herbal derived from the species Artemisia annua has been developed into a highly efficient anti-malarial medicine.  Then there is Artemisia absinthium, the source of the green-colored alcoholic liquid absinthe of early 20th century fame.  And there is more.  Tarragon, the culinary herb, is a sterile, vegetatively propagated  Artemisia species. There are hundreds of species of Artemisia in the world.

Artemisia absinthium, the plant that is included in absinthe.  Species in this genus have finely divided leaves that often are silvery, and wind-pollinated flowers that are clustered in small, hanging heads.
Image source: Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, public domain, via Wikipedia.

Artemisia is named after the Ancient Greek goddess Artemis, and her name is also used as a source of many names and places outside of botany (see Wikipedia list). She was the deity associated with hunting, childbirth, and wild places. A greek botanist and doctor, Artemisia II of Caria, was named after Artemis, and the name of the genus might have been in her honor, especially since these plants are highly medicinal and have been used as herbals since ancient times.

Surprisingly, in a travel article in The New York Times this weekend about 'absinthe trails' on the border between Switzerland and France, the name of the genus was given as Artemesia, not Artemisia.

"In particular, its namesake ingredient, grand wormwood — Artemesia absinthum in Latin, and simply called “absinthe” in French — might have been found all over Europe, but the type of wormwood that grew in the Val-de-Travers and nearby Franche-Comté was said to be vastly superior."  (source)

Yes, The New York Times also didn't italicize the scientific name, but they apparently never do.  But, for a newspaper that pride themselves on accuracy and correct facts and grammar, scientific names do not seem to get spell-checked a lot.  On May 30, 2014, they published an article on dandelions and it included this sentence:

"The dandelion (Taraxacum officianale) arrived with the first Europeans and can now be found throughout North America. "   (source)

The correct name is Taraxacum officinale, for this most ubiquitous of our lawn weeds. No idea how that extra 'a' got in there...  For biology, this is as much of a mistake as misspelling Obama or Boehner in political writing. For more on formatting and use of scientific names, take a look at this blogpost.

Despite Artemisia being widely used and present, the genus name is often misspelled.  The spelling as Artemesia is common (example 1, example 2), and often Artemisia herbals are sold under 'Artemesia' even if the bottle label correctly says 'Artemisia'.  Is there something in the sound of this name that make us misspell this name inadvertently?

"Magic Seed 100 Mugwort Seeds Artemesia" for sale on Amazon.com by Magic Seed company.
Screenshot by BotanicalAccuracy.com.

 To conclude, here are seeds of mugwort (as 'Artemesia Vulgaris') for sale on Amazon.com. It should be Artemisia vulgaris.   The ad also states "Easy to grow, grows like crazy once established'.  Yes, indeed. It is a common, noxious weed and regulated in some states, and a not something you want to have in your vegetable garden.  If you need some mugwort, you will probably find it really easily anyway, without having to grow it from seed.

(It should be noted that the spelling 'Artemesia' is used for a music band, as a family or given name, and for some buildings. But it isn't used for the plant. )

RQ: Use of scientific names as English words

READER QUESTION: If an article lists a series of plants, such as "osmundas, polystichums, and polypodies," should the names be capitalized and italicized?

Osmunda regalis, known as royal fern in English.
(Image from T. Moore, The ferns of Great Britain
and Ireland, 1856, public domain, via Wikipedia.)

Answer: No. In this case the three fern genera Osmunda, Polystichum, and Polypodium are used as English words, and function as common names, so the example give above is fine.

You could capitalize the names (as 'Osmundas'), but you don't have to, and I think it is better if common names are generally not capitalized. We don't capitalize words like cat, dog, human, apple, and such common names. And if these scientific genus names are used as English common names, then they should not be in italics either. There are many examples where scientific genus names of plants are used in English, for example geranium, calla, petunia...