Taraxacum officinale and is derived from the word "opificina", later "officina", meaning a workshop or pharmacy. The flowers are used to make dandelion wine, the greens are used in salads, the roots have been used to make a coffee substitute (when baked and ground into powder) and the plant was used by Native Americans as a food and medicine. Dandelions are harvested from the wild or grown on a small scale as a leaf vegetable. The leaves (called dandelion greens) can be eaten cooked or raw in various forms, such as in soup or salad. They are probably closest in character to
Mirabilis expansa one week in the soil with layers of barely straw alternated between it to concentrate the sugars. The cooking water of "M. expansa" makes a satisfying sweet drink. “In Bolivia, the stems and roots are left to ripen and then cut and cooked. The cooking water is served as a soft drink”. "M. expansa" can be used to feed livestock, allowing the entire plant to be used. Mauka’s many different uses give it a higher degree of conversion than other agricultural by-products. Mauka roots contain approximately 87% carbohydrate on a dry weight basis. Mauka analyzed from Bolivia and Peru has