What makes dandelions weeds and not flowers?

It is all due to the dandelions happy-go-lucky nature. Unlike more serious plants, like the snippity rose, or even the black-eyed Susan, the dandelions have never attempted to brand themselves as anything special. Despite their Latin name of "Taraxacum officinale," which roughly means "really good for healing ailments," the lazy flower simply refused to promote itself. It would rather propogate, scare away grass, and entice little girls into believing they can predict whether a boy loves you or not.

If it's any help, I find it best to let my neighbors determine whether something is a weed or not. They wander over into my *space* quite often, and they are only too happy to point their toe at various plants around my home and inform me, "that's a weed." I mumble "uhuh," and make a mental note to transplant it into their yard, after dark. Weeds are easy to transplant, so when you see it growing well a week later, that is further proof it was a weed. Dandelions are one of the easiest plants to transplant, so it is indeed a weed, but they are quite beautiful. They make an attractive path of yellow along the far edge of any property line, and if you want to know if a boy loves you, you can quickly run over and pick one.