I was handed a bouquet of dandelions by my four-year old this week and my heart melted. "Let's go get a vase," he said to me. I told him they probably wouldn't last very long in a vase and he responded, "Thats OK - our whole yard is full of them, we'll never run out." True. Our yard could be a vineyard for dandelion wine.
The word dandelion originated in France and makes those pesky little things sound like beautiful flowers. Dent de Lion, or dandelion as it is translated in English means "lion's tooth", which makes sense because they usually travel in packs.
I used to go around with a spade and dig up each dandelion by hand. Until I relized that dandelions can be spread from miles away. For our yard, it will take years of Weed and Feed to manage even half of the dandelions. The official name for the dandelion is Taraxacum Officinale, which means the official remedy for disorders. You could actually eat the entire dandelion plant, from flower to root. It's considered a wild vegetable!
Some people use the greens and flower to make a salad. Or, use the root to make a dandelious drink. In that case, our lawn is a salad-lover's dream. The raw greens are also rich in calcium. It also has 14,000 i.u. of Vitamin A, plus 19 milligrams of thiamin, 26 mg. of riboflavin and 35 mg. of ascorbic acid, which your body changes into vitamin C. That's more than most multi-vitamins. The USDA says that dandelions are more nutritious than broccoli.
It is also believed that dandelions are helpful as a diuretic, to cut fats, to reduce gas, for kidney stones, cancer, diabetes, to cleanse the blood, for weight reduction, for vision, for your skin and acne, for bowel functions, to lower blood pressure and serum cholesterol, and for anemia. But, you might want to check it out with your doctor first.
And, they aren't just for the birds. Although geese, ducks, and quail often eat the flower and seed heads, blackbirds and sparrows love the seeds, and deer, moose, elk, black bears, grizzlies, chipmunks and prairie dogs eat the plants.
It's also dandy to note that some herbalists believe the milky substance from the stem treats warts, if you apply them once a day for up to 5 days.
Although some people may also get an allergic rash from the dandelions. The Chinese use dandelion root for relieving tonsillitis by slowly cooking one ounce of the root, chopped, in two cups of water until only half of the liquid remains. After it cools, they sip the syrup.
The dandelion is a perennial that grows best in moist areas in ful sun; however, it can survive some shade and dry conditions once it's established (we must have a very established yard). Dandelions grow year round in California and they are illegal to grow in Pueblo, Colorado. Its strong taproot is capable of anchoring in the soil up to 10 to 15 feet, but usually only burrows 6 to 18 inches deep. Buds grow from the uppermost area of the root and produce a crown that can regenerate new plants even when the plant is cut off at or below the soil surface. Sections of the root as short as 1 inch in length are also capable of producing new plants. There are no true stems; instead the leaves are clustered in a rosette at the base of the plant.
Seed germination occurs as or very near the soil surface and light increases germination. Flowering begins soon after the seedling stage and continues throughout the life of the plant. Dandelion plants can survive for many years, developing massive, thickened crowns 6 to 10 inches across.