20240510_103400.jpg
This is a closeup shot of one of the three plants I cut from the ground level this morning; this sample is now laid out on a kitchen counter.
Note the three large and obvious buds nestled in the centre of the plant. These buds have stalks which we can consider to be zero-length for now, but adjacent plants have bud-stalks of over an inch.
I had not noticed (in my five years of harvesting dandelions) the buds already set IN the plant, albeit the buds and leaves are spread out at ground-level.
My long-term reasoning has been that the dandelion seeds, 2mm brown capsules, contain enough food/energy for the seed to survive a further eleven months drifting and encased in the ground. A dandelion clock therefore contains hundreds of such quanta of energy. The flower is the factory that churns out the seeds/clock, so the day
before the clock forms, the flower head/factory must be full of nourishment.
I could be wrong.
Now I wondering how much protein/DNA/etc. might be present in these two-day-old buds.
Cheers, Chris
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Time for lunch. 
dandelions. When we have a break in the rain I will post a photo of the "central bud" which I don't recall seeing before.