PLATE 31. 



FALL DANDELION, Leontodon auiumnalis, L. 



Other English names : August Flower, Autumnal Hawkbit. 

 Other Latin name: Apargia autumnalis, Hoffm. 



Introduced. Perennial. Rootstock short and thick, frequently divided 

 into several heads, each of which bears a thick tuft of runcinately 

 toothed leaves somewhat resembling those of the Dandelion in outline, and 

 several few-flowered leafless stems. Flower heads over 1 inch across, bright 

 yellow. Seeds [Plate 56, fig. 65 natural size and enlarged 4 times] 

 W of an inch long, linear, a little swollen below, not beaked, ribbed 

 leEgthwise, the ribs connected by raised waved lines giving the whole 

 .surface a netted appearance; pappus dirty white, in one row of plumose 

 bristles. 



Time of Flowering: July till frost; seeds ripe August. 

 Propagation: By seeds and by division of the crown. 



Occurrence : Abundant in the Maritime Provinces and parts of Quebec. 

 Recently reported from hay fields in several places in Ontario. 



Injury : Spreads rapidly from seed and overruns meadows, pastures and 

 lawns, where it chokes out grass with its thick rosette of leaves in a very 

 similar way to the COMMON DANDELION, Taraxacum officinale, Weber, the 

 well-known pest of all long-settled districts. This latter, however, differs 

 from the Fall Dandelion in having long deep tapering roots, every part of 

 which, if broken off, will throw out leaves and form new plants, as well as 

 in having hollow single-headed flower stalks and long-beaked green seeds. 

 There is another Dandelion occurring with the preceding, the RED-SEEDED 

 DANDELION, Taraxacum, erythrospermum, Andrz., which differs from it 

 merely by having reddish-purple seeds and more deeply divided leaves. 

 The seeds of these Dandelions resemble in outline and size those of the 

 Prickly Lettuce [Plate 56, fig. 67], but are not flattened as they are. 



Remedy : The breaking up of pastures and meadows destroys all the 

 plants of the shallow-rooted Fall Dandelion, which rot with the sod. In 

 lawns the best treatment for- all Dandelions is to dig out the plants and en- 

 courage the grass by sowing more seed, preferably of Kentucky Blue Grass 

 and by light top dressings of quick-acting fertilizers, such as nitrate of soda, 

 which may be used at the rate of 200 pounds to the acre, to be applied, not 

 all at once, but in three or four light applications. 



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