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Turning to the car to leave, I see the white globe of a dandelion pappus float past the driver’s window and gently land by the front wheel.

He called his soldiers pappi, and many soon felt comfortable enough around him to call him the same.

This tuft, called a pappus, is made up of a sparse thicket of filaments, or bristles, that look something like the sprouting hair on the head of the Chinese crested dog.

This vortex travels above the pappus and yet is not attached to it, an invisible yet faithful familiar that generates lift and prolongs the seed’s descent.

Achenes obovoid, with a small summit and no pappus.—Herbs or shrubby plants, bitter and aromatic, with small commonly nodding heads in panicled spikes or racemes; flowering in summer.