Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale

Asteraceae

The lawn's bitter physician — leaf as a potassium-rich diuretic, root as a liver bitter.

Wild food. The whole plant is used.

Parts used: Leaf · Root
Traditional notes: Sluggish digestion · Water retention · Bitter appetite prompt · Gentle liver support
Grow · USDA 6b: Perennial. You already have it. Or simply stop digging them all out. For a bed: sow in autumn. In work: Mar · Apr · May · Sep · Oct · Nov
Harvest: Leaves in early spring before bloom; roots in late autumn.

The best leaves are from plants you have not let bloom yet.
A deep taproot wants loose soil if you plan to dig it.
Roast roots until they snap; that is the coffee-substitute crop.

Safety

Bile-duct obstruction Known Asteraceae allergy

Lore

Dent-de-lion, lion’s tooth, for the leaf. French gardens still sell it as pissenlit, which is a diuretic joke in plain language. The taproot, roasted, fooled no one as coffee and pleased everyone as a bitter.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.