The damage that dandelions cause in the yard are they crowd out desirable species of plants and grass and reduce the vigor of the grass and plants that do survive.
Dandelions also form clumps in turf that cause poor footing for golf courses and athletic fields.
Also dandelions compete with the grass and lawn for water.
And when you water your lawn, the dandelions absorb the water and moisture that is meant for your grass which means your grass may not get the water it needs to survive.
Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) generally indicate poor soil that is low in calcium and compacted.
The dandelions' taproots, however, are doing the job of breaking up the soil!
Dandelions also can ruin the appearance of a flower bed, and their long taproots make them difficult to eradicate.
And many of the hundreds of seeds that make up those fluffy puffs will take root when the wind (or a person) blows them around, which is why they're still so prevalent all these years later.
Pulling the dandelions up can make them worse as it tends to spread the seeds of the dandelions around.
Pulling up dandelions by hand or mowing the dandelions over seems like the simplest way to do it, but this is actually the worst way to deal with dandelions short of doing nothing at all.
And if the dandelions are in seed form, mowing and the yanking involved with pulling by hand will usually spread seeds and cause more dandelions.
Dandelions also known as taraxacum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions.
The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology.