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
Glossary of plant morphology part of a descriptor of the plant's habit. Plant habit can also refer to whether the plant possesses any specialised systems for the storage of carbohydrates or water, allowing the plant to renew its growth after an unfavourable period. Where the amount of water stored is relatively high, the plant is referred to as a succulent. Such specialised plant parts may arise from the stems or roots. Examples include plants growing in unfavourable climates, very dry climates where storage is intermittent depending on climatic conditions, and those adapted to surviving fires and regrowing from the soil afterwards. Some types of