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  Dandelions!
The plant we love to hate, their mocking yellow flowers and puffy seed heads RUINING the look of your PERFECT lawn. Your neighbors HATE you for your dandelions, they scoff at your laziness and ineptitude at keeping a WEED from your lawn. At the end of the day they are just plants and it is your property with the freedom to do what you want. If your neighbor wants to spend money and time poisoning the land and doing something quite pointless that is their choice. 

In many suburban areas the entire ecosystem has been destroyed. Leaving very few if any intact habitat for the wildlife that once called that area home. The plants that do make it and quite well are those that are Dandelion like. (Chicory sub family of the sunflower family) 
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These plants while mostly non-native can be vital forage for insects in areas devoid of other flowers (usually lawns). These flowers do not act invasively and rarely overtake native habitats like the plants: Lotus or Knapweed. 

So why continue to wage war with herbicides and the painstaking and infinite chore of the dandelion picker. Let em GROW! 
If you are looking or watching you may see some pretty cool insects foraging on them. See album below for examples of what I have seen on dandelions! 




 
Other great little lawn flowers include:
Clovers- red and white 
Buttercups (save for creeping that one can be quite invasive) 
Glechoma (sorta invasive but if you are in a highly developed area it doesn't matter- these plants wont completely destroy  biodiversity like stiltgrass, mugwort or barberry) 
Gallium -butterfly magnet
Plantago -butterfly host plant
Violets -butterfly host plant 
Prunella
Chickweeds (Stellaria and Cerastium) 
Cardamines and other small mustards like Lepidium -host plant to the Cabbage white - a small white butterfly
Deadnettles in the genus Lamium
Potentilla/Cinquefoils  

Many suburban developments once were pastures and fields. These fields although not pristine habitat had a better ecosystem function than a traditional weed free lawn. In many cases this plant mix still exisits on your proeprty all it needs is to not be mowed. Try no mow may or leave certain areas up. You can then augment with natives or see what comes up! Its an easy, free and really simple way to make a positive impact to your local ecosystem. 




 
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