Fall-dandelion is a plant that I have rarely seen in the Toronto area but which is extremely common in Quebec and the Maritimes in the summer and fall.
The leaves are found only at the base.
In this way, the plant resembles Common Dandelion.
The leaves in both species are cut in a way which resembles a “lions tooth”. (dent-de-lion from which the English name comes)
Both Fall-dandelion and Common Dandelion are considered as lawn weeds.
Both plants have been introduced from Eurasia.
Sometimes they are in flower at the same time, though Fall-dandelion tends to flower much later in the season.
The Common Dandelion in this photo was growing very near some Fall-dandelion plants.
The flower heads of Fall-dandelion are about 25 mm wide and are held on a slender stalk.
Fall-dandelion grows to between 15 and 45 cm in height.
Miles Hearn
I first noticed autumn hawkbit in Craigleith near Collingwood and later in Guelph at several locations such as Guelph Lake Park. I have transplanted a large number of plants to my lawn and am totally facinated by them. They are like a gentler, more forgiving, less brash and intrusive dandelion while still having pretty yellow flowers! In Craigleith, there were NO dandelions in hawkbit lawns. In Guelph, there are dandelions on the edges of hawkbit lawns. In Kitchener where I live, I have found none so far.
So my question is this: they grow fine in my yard when transplanted there 3 years ago, so likely not a soil problem in Kitchener. Is one or both allelopathic to the other? Many references say dandelions are allelopathic. I have found no reference that says autumn hawkbit is and one reference that says it is not.
I suspect the fight is over in Craigleith and on-going in Guelph. I suspect that the autumn hawkbit is inhibiting the dandelions, but that is also what I’m hoping for, so I may be biased in my evaluation. I don’t expect the hawkbit to be able to kill off mature dandelions, but I’m hoping they can prevent the emergence of seedlings from seeds blown in by all my neighbours. So I’m helping them get started by removing all the existing dandelions. It will take several years ’till I know for sure…..
I’m encouraging 25 different flowering weeds in my lawn, but I can’t let dandelions loose or I will have nothing else in 5 years.
Ray Sauder
Well no one else has commented on this article….It is now Feb. 2023 and I’m thinking about additions I can make this summer to my wildflower lawn! I’ve had 2 more summers to observe the autumn hawkbit plants I started 5 years ago. They do indeed seem to keep the dandelions somewhat at bay. But they also are bunching up a little more than I hoped for. My original perception of lawns where they were growing in Collingwood was that they also inhibited their own seeds from sprouting and so spaced themselves out at 8 inch intervals across the lawn. I’ve been just tossing seeds to other parts of this 180 foot strip of lawn and that is spreading them slowly. The original area where I transplanted about 50 plants was instantly an area of nice yellow flowers. Another small downside is that the more mature older plants are sending the flower stalks higher and higher, making them look weedier. I now have a large enough area established to try using fall fertilizer(+ iron) to try controlling them. I do this with Yarrow and English daisies when clumps get too big. I will also try using a grass trimmer to lop off flower stalks a couple of times – maybe they will “pull their heads in”….
Been working on this for 10 years and noticed about 5 years ago that this plant was rapidly spreading here. VERY difficult to remove when you realize it is a problem. The only solution after a lot of effort for me has been as wide a variety of small native plants, grasses, sedges, and rushes as possible…and fighting the invaders who put all their effort into expansion/reproduction, including pollinator thievery and allelopathy (the Japanese have discovered common dandelion pollen is allelopathic, so there is another whole can of worms to research). Happily, my biodiversity is on the uptick, and in addition to controlling light at night (since I am in a rural area and can), I have thousands of photos of insects now to upload to inaturalist, lol. No good deed…. But the pleasure…is in baby birds.