In article , "Volfie"
wrote:

"Joe" wrote
Are you positive it's a dandelion? Just guessing, but multiple
heads with dandelion-like flowers could be a type of hawkweed:

http://www.joekaz.net/photos/arboret...awkweed_1.html
http://www.joekaz.net/photos/arboret...awkweed_2.html
http://www.joekaz.net/photos/arboret...awkweed_3.html

Yep, I'm absolutely positive it's a dandelion. I wish I had a scanner so I
could show you how odd they are. I dried some of them. The stem was
actually about an inch wide on the biggest one -- sort of wide and flat like
a lot of stems joined side by side. Then it was capped with all these heads
all jumbled together, not on individual stems. They were so tightly packed
sometimes, that I couldn't get a good count.

Giselle (same year but in a slightly different area I also got a zinnia with
two heads, a black-eyed susan with two and a co-joined cherry.

There are eleven invasive species of hawkweeds introduced into the US from
England. Several have the kind of multi-flowers you describe, & I think
Joe has it right. What Hieracium species do not have is the big carrot
taproot of a true dandylion, so they're easier to pull up root & all.
Sundry species crossbreed willynilly so identifying which species of
Hieracium can be difficult or impossible. Other genera that look like
dandylions include Hypochoeris & Sonchus, but it is Hieracium spp that
produce the multiflowered stemheads, with H. pratense the most common of
the eleven invaders & the most insistant on multi-headed flowerstems,
though severaql others are also likelier candidates than any Taraxacum
officianale dandylion going mutant.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com