Baton Rouge, LA, what is this kinda-sorta dandelion wildflower? It is 14 inches tall, lemon yellow, and closes up at night. Petals are more refined than a dandelion's, though it is hard ro see in these photos. Long serated leaves. My first thought was a dandelion, but I have never seen one quite like this. My reward for not mowing the lawn! 
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Slightly off-topic but related, while searching for info, I stumbled across this curious article on dandelion research. Really COOL.
[cen.acs.org]
MikeInBatonRouge
Level 8
Apr 20, 2019
1
OK, I am still not sure. I appreciate all the input. I looked up images of "Salsify," that was suggested. The plant forms I found certainly look more like what I have than the typical dandelion and is certainly taller, but the meadow salsify that was suggested does not have nearly the number of petals on mine. Google search noted there are over a 100 varieties of dandelion (genus: taraxacum). Both salsify and taraxacum make those feathery powder puff seed heads. This will sound crazy to lawn lovers (which I am definitely NOT) but I think I want more of them. I have dense clay soil, so trying to dig it up seems sure to snap the tap root. Not sure if it would recover. I am not thinking I will wait for it to go to seed and try to harvest those to scatter in my butterfly garden strip I am planting; let it sprout among the milkweed and coneflowers, dill, cosmos, and asters. Crazy idea or not?
MikeInBatonRouge
Level 8
Apr 20, 2019
1
I love these flowers. They're so bright and beautifil. They grow wild here in North Texas and I have thought to try to cultivate them but have yet to try it. They are known here as a Texas Dandilion. The link is to the entry at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
RussRAB
Level 8
Apr 20, 2019
1
I agree, very pretty. A type of aster, according to that scientific name. So apparently sunflowers, dandelions, asters, and salsify are all related. I still have not managed to memorize the scientific classification of plant relations; you know, kingdom, phylum, species, variety, etc. I know there are more classifications than that, I just can't name them, nor the proper order. lol
@MikeInBatonRouge - I tend to think of them as composites but I did notice that the scientific family names Asteraceae and Compositae are apparently the same. Names seem to change quite a bit among plant taxons. I've run into plenty of changes as I paid more attention in recent years to plant names, typically the Family, Genus, and species. These changes add confusion to attempting to make sense of scientic taxonomy. Although, the same variety in plant names does exist among common name as well. Salsify for example is alzo known as goat's beard or oyster plant, and the Texas dandelion is also called desert chicory.
@MikeInBatonRouge - Are you at all familiar with the USDA website? As I recall, each entry has a section listing the plants taxonomic names from Kingdom to species.
@RussRAB thnx. I hadn't really checked it out before.
Gently try to uproot it. Chances are good it has a long "tap" root....like a carrot.
Robecology
Level 9
Apr 19, 2019
2
I might try that if my soil were not such dense clay, but it is. I am sure it would snap the root before I got any sense of depth of it. 
But see above. I have decided to lose my mind and try to plant more of these from seed. ha
@MikeInBatonRouge The roots go deep...and in dense soil, they might be skinny and small...but that keeps them alive in droughts...and the roots are edible! Bitter, but a unique flavor!
Looks like a dandelion to me. I have seen different leaves on them.
itsmedammit
Level 8
Apr 19, 2019
1
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