Now all city lawns are covered with yellow flowers. It is a dandelion bloom. A flower familiar even to people far from botany. Many made wreaths of flowers (more correctly inflorescences), and baskets, separated from the peduncle, were hidden in “secrets”. And how much joy it caused the children to blow away the fluffy parachutes of ripened seeds.

We continue the online course on botanical taxonomy. The scientific name of this plant is Taraxacum officinale Wigg. s. l. – medicinal dandelion. For those who have read previous publications, it’s clear that Wigg. – This is an abbreviation of the name of the scientist who proposed this name. In this case, he was the German botanist Friedrich Heinrich Wiggers. But what do the two letters “s. L.” Mean? This is an abbreviation for the Latin expression “sensu lato” – “in the broad sense.” Usually this abbreviation is used if there is a more or less generally accepted broad interpretation of the taxon volume. Thus, T. taxinale is considered by many taxonomists as a group of different species. For example, Nikolai Nikolaevich Tsvelev, in his book “Key to Vascular Plants of North-West Russia,” identifies 82 different taxa from this aggregate species. For example: T. crassipes Lindb. – O. toltonozhkovy, T. litorale Raunk. – O. Primorsky, T. laeticolor Dahlst. – O. brightly colored and so on. The identifier can be found on the Internet and try to determine which of these many types of dandelion grows with you.

By the name “medicinal dandelion” it is clear that this plant is used in medicine. In Israel, the dried dandelion roots market costs 40 shekels per 100 grams. Also, this plant is considered a malicious weed; it can grow even on the blind area of ​​the building and on asphalt. And again the question:

HOW DOES THERE A Dandelion EXCEPT MEDICINAL RAW MATERIAL?

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