It is native to Western Europe where it grows in meadows, fields and fallow land.
Collection is made in the autumn.
Taraxacum contains a bitter taraxacin, the monohydric alcohols taraxasterol and homotaraxasterol, fatty acid s, sugars and inulin. Martindale, 26th Edn., p. 330. Merck Index, 7th Edn., p.1011. Often broken into irregular pieces, externally brown and longitudinally wrinkled, with root scars and a somewhat branched crown. The fracture is short and horny, the fractured surface showing alternate layers of brown laticiferous vessels and white parenchyma.