Stems are very short and wholly underground, producing a rosette of leaves at the ground surface.
The flower heads are solitary at the end of naked, hollow stalks. Plants develop from unfertilized gametes. Seeds travel a considerable distance because of the parachuting effect produced by the spreading pappus. In a seedbank of a ponderosa pine community in Washington, viable dandelion seedlings emerged from litter and soil samples in greenhouse germination trials. Seed germination on a control plot in Wisconsin was inhibited by thick mulch.