Dandelions March 1, 2022

By Tulla Lightfoot

I saw the first blooming Dandelion on the trail in February 15^th, but that plant was definitely an outlier, and a sad, misshapen little thing. Like the Purple Dead-Nettle I wrote about in my first post, this Dandelion was growing almost directly underneath an electric powerline tower.  Powerline towers emit invisible electric and magnetic fields that increase in intensity the closer you are from the source.  With research, I learned that scientists from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences reconfirmed that electricity boosts the growth of plants by 20% to as much as 70%.  Electricity is so helpful in encouraging plant growth that these scientists intend to have electricity help reduce their country’s reliance on fertilizers and pesticides, thus helping the environment as well. Worried that this plant had a little too much help from invisible electronic and magnetic waves, I continued to search for dandelions until I was absolutely certain they were blooming on their own. Two weeks later, by March 1^st, healthy Dandelion plants began to line the greenway path in the sunlit hill at the head of the trail.  Once again, a powerline tower was visible but at a distance, and this time the plants looked healthy enough for me to trust that it was the proper time for them to appear. They did have some help, though.  A few weeks before, the county had sent a crew to mow the sides of the trail.  If it hadn’t been for this help, I’m not sure when I would have seen the first blooms, but the deep tap roots of these plants had survived the onslaught of the mowers and by the first of March they were enjoying the fact that they had little competition and plenty of sun.

The scientific name for Dandelions is Taraxacum officinale, which is loosely translated as “the official remedy for disorders”.  The name we use, Dandelion, comes from the French, dent de lion, meaning “lion’s tooth” because the jagged leaves of the plants resembled the teeth of the European lions that roamed Europe until about 1,000 CE.  However, in China the name of the plant translates to “Nail of the Earth”.  Other names for the plant are: Irish Daisy, Peasant’s Cloak and Devil’s Milk Plant. It is a perennial with a long taproot and bright yellow flowers that grow on hollow stems.  The flowers, consisting of 50 or more individual blooms, open in the morning on sunny days and close in the afternoon.  Flowers often remain closed during rainy or cloudy weather. The mature seeds develop parachutes that are blown by the wind and can drift for long distances, enabling the plant to form colonies far from the parent plant.

Dandelions originated in Eurasia, probably around the Mediterranean. Settlers brought the plants to the British Isles. From there they carried them to Scandinavia and then east to the Orient.  Vikings carried Dandelions in their boats to Greenland, and Puritans brought them to New England to plant in their herb gardens, as did colonists from other European countries.  Dandelions were never cultivated as an economic plant, but for 300 years North Americans considered them to be a valuable source of food and medicine, and commonly planted them in their backyard gardens right up until the early 1900s. The seeds of the dandelion plants were blown by the wind and moved west as the forests were cleared so that by today, they are the most common plants found in urban and suburban areas, and the most easily recognized.  

Dandelions are perennials and can grow just about anywhere, but prefer sunny locations. The plant is still just as nutritious and useful as it ever was, but our attitude towards it changed drastically a century ago.  That was when the single crop green lawn became a valued status symbol for homeowners across the nation. Dandelions, with their long taproots, and leaves that rest on or are close to the ground disturbed the esteemed blanket of green lawn. So, the once valued Dandelion is now seen as a weed that needs to be eradicated.  And while the plants are readily eaten by sheep, “they are relatively low yielding as forage” (1) and not valued in farmers’ fields because they hinder other plants from growing nearby.  Still, today, they persist and are one of the most common and easily recognized plants found in sunny urban and suburban areas.  They thrive on roadsides, construction sites, parking lots and lawns.  They even grow on gravel and cement. Their roots are wide spreading and help loosen hard packed soil and aerate the earth, while helping to reduce erosion. Their deep taproots pull nutrients like calcium from deep in the soil making it available to other plants.  Dandelions actually fertilize the lawn!

The greens were a relished food eaten by ancient Greeks and Romans where greens and sliced roots were served on buttered bread.  The flowers were also dipped in batter and fried. Today, Dandelion are one of the earliest appearing greens and can be used in salads and smoothies.  Dandelion roots can also be used as a substitute for coffee.  These plants are delicious, and also nutritious.  They are a good source of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and carotenoid as well as vitamins A, B, C and D.  Dandelions contain 25 times more vitamin A than tomato juice or spinach.  The plant can also be used as medicine to help relieve arthritis, gout, toothaches, sores, fevers, rotting gums, weakness, lethargy and depression.  In addition, one can use Dandelions as a laxative, to improve the appetite, and to treat heart and liver diseases, gallstones and jaundice.   The milky sap can be used to remove pimples and warts and if that’s not enough, they were once thought to ward off witches.  Maybe they can still do this today!

Endnote:

Garden Organic, “Dandelion”, https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/weeds/dandelion

Learn more about Dandelions at:

Yuxuan17, “Electro Culture – The Boost of Plant Growth with Electricity” , The University of Melbourne, Scientific Scribbles,  October 2019, https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/sciencecommunication/2019/10/21/electro-culture-the-boost-of-plant-growth-with-electricity/

BC Hydro“Understanding Electric and Magnetic Fields” https://www.bchydro.com/content/dam/BCHydro/customer-portal/documents/corporate/safety/understanding-emf-booklet.pdf

Gene Tempest, Boston Globe: Real Estate, “400 years ago, they arrived upon our shores…Dandelions.” October 2020, https://realestate.boston.com/ask-the-expert/2020/10/28/400-years-ago-they-arrived-upon-our-shores-dandelions/

Terry W. Johnson, “Out My Backdoor: In Defense of Dandelions”  Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division,  https://georgiawildlife.com/out-my-backdoor-defense-dandelions  Retrieved 2-14-2022.

Here is the painting I made of Dandelions