Plant from an outlet academic's written about (9)
I believe the answer is:
dandelion
'plant' is the definition.
(dandelion is a kind of plant)
'an outlet academic's written about' is the wordplay.
'outlet' becomes 'deli' (deli is a kind of outlet).
'academic' becomes 'don' (I've seen this before).
'written about' is an insertion indicator.
'an'+'deli'='andeli'
'andeli' going into 'don' is 'DANDELION'.
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for dandelion that I've seen before include "One blooming" , "Weed with deeply incised leaves" , "Flower with a "clock"" , "Wild plant with "clock"" , "Common yellow-flowered weed" .)