9 March 2026
Have you seen your first dandelion flower of 2026?
Probably not. My earliest photo record of a dandelion was taken on 3 April, shown above. My photo date might not match First Blooming date in Pittsburgh, though, because I rarely take photos of dandelions until they go to seed.
Dandelions in North America are an invasive species, Taraxacum officinale, originally brought on the Mayflower for salad greens. They spread across the continent because their seeds disperse on the wind, each dangling from a tiny parachute of fluff called a pappus (plural is pappi).
In Japan there is a native dandelion species, the Korean dandelion (Taraxacum platycarpum), that grows in rural places as well as densely urban spaces where it finds refuge in temple parks among the high rises. A recent study found that the urban dandelion seeds have evolved to float shorter distances than their rural counterparts.
The volumes of the pappi—the parachutelike structures that allow seeds to float away—in the rural dandelions were more than twice as large as those in the urban plants, the team found. That may be because seeds that travel beyond their small fields [in the city] die on their perilous city journeys, making the energy investment in a bigger parachute less worthwhile.
— Science Magazine: Urban dandelions have evolved to stay close to home. That’s bad news
The study also found that their urban dandelions are 10 times less genetically diverse than their rural counterparts, presumably because they were all pollinating their close neighbors.
In Japan this is a problem because the dandelion is native. The study suggests methods to link isolated populations and reverse their potential demise.
Meanwhile in North America our invasive dandelions are doing just fine, though I wonder if they’ve evolved shorter fluff in dense urban settings such as New York City.
Read more in Science Magazine: Urban dandelions have evolved to stay close to home. That’s bad news.
I’ll let you know when I see the first one blooming in Pittsburgh.
On Beeler Street the other day one of the front yards was entirely covered in aconite and snow drops. Sadly I didn’t get a photo so don’t know if there were any dandelions blooming. I grew up in Berks County PA where in the PA Dutch culture dandelion salad with hot bacon dressing was a delicious staple. One cultivated a small patch to have a supply of young, tender leaves. Also bunches available then in Farmer’s Markets.