Old Fashion Flower Diagram Book Dandilions

Readers can acquire more lore about dandelions in The Teeth of the Panthera leo past Anita Sanchez.

By Anita Sanchez

Whether you beloved them or hate them, dandelions are among the about familiar plants in the world. They're one species that only almost anyone tin can identify at a glance, as familiar to humans as the domestic dog. Dandelions are, quite perhaps, the almost successful plants that be, masters of survival worldwide.

Before the invention of lawns, people praised the gilded blossoms and lion-toothed leaves every bit a bounty of food, medicine and magic. Gardeners often weeded out the grass to brand room for the dandelions. Only somewhere in the twentieth century, humans decided that the dandelion was a weed. Nowadays, they're besides the most unpopular institute in the neighborhood – but information technology wasn't always that way.

To show the benefits of the once-love institute, here are 10 10 things you might not know about dandelions.

one. Dandelions take deep roots in history throughout the ages. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans enjoyed the flower, and they accept been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over a grand years. Dandelions probably arrived in North America on the Mayflower – not as stowaways, but brought on purpose for their medicinal benefits.

2. Dandelions were globe-famous for their beauty. They were a common and beloved garden flower in Europe, and the subject of many poems. In the terrifying New Globe, the cheerful face of the dandelion was a sweet reminder of home. In Japan for example, whole horticultural societies formed to enjoy the beauty of dandelions and to develop heady new varieties for gardeners.

iii. Dandelions are a green and growing starting time assist kit. The utilize of dandelions in the healing arts goes and then far back that tracing its history is like trying to catch a dandelion seed every bit information technology floats over the grass. For millenniums, people accept been using dandelion tonics to aid trunk'southward liver remove toxins from the bloodstream. In olden times, dandelions were also prescribed for every ailment, from warts to the plague. To this mean solar day, herbalists hail the dandelion as the perfect institute medicine: It is a gentle diuretic that provides nutrients and helps the digestive organisation role at peak efficiency.

4. Dandelions are more than nutritious than nearly of the vegetables in your garden. They were named afterward lions because their lion-toothed leaves healed and so many ailments, keen and small: baldness, dandruff, toothache, sores, fevers, rotting gums, weakness, lethargy and depression. Merely it wasn't until the twentieth century was the underlying cause of many of these symptoms realized: vitamin deficiencies. In eras when vitamin pills were unknown, vitamin deficiencies killed millions. In its fourth dimension, "scurvy" was as dreaded a discussion as AIDS is today. Data from the U.S. Section of Agriculture reveal how dandelions probably helped alleviate many ailments: They have more vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes, and are a powerhouse of iron, calcium and potassium.

5. Dandelions are good for your backyard. Their broad-spreading roots loosen hard-packed soil, aerate the earth and help reduce erosion. The deep taproot pulls nutrients such as calcium from deep in the soil and makes them available to other plants. While nearly think they're a lawn killer, dandelions actually fertilize the grass.

6. Dandelions are masters of survival. They tin can take root in places that seem little short of miraculous, and then are impossible to become rid of, as homeowners have found. Simply why is this institute then hard to kill? It'southward because they are fast growers. The sunny yellowish flowers become from bud to seed in days. Their lifespan is long, also – an individual plant tin can alive for years, and so the dandelion lurking in a corner of the playground might exist older than the children running past it. The roots sink in deeper over the years, and can go downwards 15 feet. Like the Hydra who sprouted 2 new heads for every ane that was cutting off, the roots clone when divided; a i-inch bit of dandelion root can grow a whole new dandelion. Dandelion leaves can shove their manner though gravel and cement, and thrive in arid habitats.

7. Dandelions are among the most expensive items in the grocery shop. Shops sell dried roots as a no-caffeine java substitute – for $31.75 a pound. Dandelions out-price prime rib, swordfish and lobster. They also appear in produce and other sections, and fifty-fifty at the liquor store. You can enjoy a complete meal, from salad greens to dandelion quiche, followed past dandelion ice cream, done down with dandelion vino. If you over-indulge, a cup of dandelion tea is the perfect remedy, since dandelions help the liver flush hangover-inducing toxins from the torso.

viii. Herbicides used on lawns to kill dandelions take a terrible toll on wild animals. More than than seven meg wild birds are estimated to die annually due to the use of lawn pesticides. Lawns make up 30 million acres of the Us, and Americans use an estimated 80 meg pounds of pesticides on them annually. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that "homeowners use up to ten times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers utilize on crops."

9. Merely there'south a safer mode to have a dandelion-free lawn! Let the grass grow 3 or four inches tall to shade out the sun-loving dandelions, or use specialized tools similar the Weed Hound to have a thriving, healthy chiliad that is prophylactic for kids, pets and wildlife.

10. And at the cease of the day, dandelions are just plain fun. The dandelion seems to be the flower earmarked for children: In a park or garden, it'due south the only flower a kid can pick without getting into trouble. A child in a field total of dandelions can practically never run out of things to do: Blowing on dandelion puffballs can tell you if information technology's time to go dwelling house, how many years until y'all get married, or how many children you'll take – and of course, if yous catch a flight dandelion seed, you can brand a wish.

Dandelions require sun and disturbed soil to thrive. That's why they seem to "wait for" homo activities: roadsides, construction sites, parking lots – and lawns. Having escaped the herb gardens a few decades agone, they now seem to exist on a quest to get back into the yards they once abased.

Dandelions probably will never be eradicated, but we can larn to be more than at ease with dandelions and other wild things – and mayhap even to love them a niggling.

About the author: Anita Sanchez of Amsterdam, N.Y., is the writer of "The Teeth of the Lion – The Story of the Beloved and Despised Dandelion," published by McDonald and Woodward Publishing Visitor ( mwpubco.com or 1-800-233-8787. $14.95).

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