Found these on the side of the road in the country. Shouldn't have any pesticides. Just making sure they were dandelions and could anyone tell me what I should do with them before I feed it to my Russians. Can I just rinse them off and they are fine?
Those are not dandelions. I don't know what they are. @Yvonne G is a better botanist than me. Maybe she'll recognize it. @RosemaryDW knows her plants pretty well too.
Do you have a picture of the whole plant?
In the future, the dandelion leaves and stems are better food for them than the flowers. Flowers are okay to, but those leaves are the best.
Do not feed those flowers to your tortoise until you get a positive ID, and verify that it is safe.
We do need a picture of the whole plant but I’m voting chicory (dandelion relative), The “saw toothed” petals are the key. It would help to know which Brooksville. Florida? Illinois?
Dandelions have at least two look-a-likes in our area, which can be considered second cousins once, maybe twice, removed from the common dandelion (or what I like to call true dandelion), which is naturalized from Europe. The two imposters which are so often seen in South Carolina along road...
www.namethatplant.net
True dandelions only make a single flower stalk at a time.