Learning How To Love Dandelions

As we’ve become unmoored from nature, we’ve forgotten the importance and many uses of a variety of plants, especially the much-maligned dandelion

© Copyright by GrrlScientist | hosted by Forbes

The mere sight of dandelions is enough to fill some people with a murderous rage, especially those who define success in terms of growing a pristine unspotted lawn. But as a species, we humans have become unmoored from nature, and we’ve forgotten the importance and many uses of a variety of plants, particularly the much-maligned dandelion.

The common dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, is an important and useful plant that has fed people for thousands of years. Young dandelion leaves are the most nutritious greens that you can eat, containing high concentrations of vitamins A, C, and K, along with moderate amounts of calcium, potassium, iron, and manganese. Young dandelion leaves make an unusual but tasty and nutritious topping on a pizza or addition to a green salad. Mature leaves are sautéed like spinach and commonly added to a variety of traditional southern European cuisines. Dandelion roots can be cooked and eaten like turnips, or dried, roasted and drunk like coffee or as an ingredient in root beer.

Mmmmm. Root beer.

And their brilliant yellow flowers make a lovely salad topping, tea or wine.

Another interesting use for dandelion flowers is drying and grinding them into a powder to create a natural dye.

The two most widespread species in The Americas, the common dandelion, T. officinale, and the red-seeded dandelion, T. erythrospermum, were introduced by the pilgrims, probably because of the plants’ reputed medicinal effects (they act as a diuretic amongst other physiological effects). And yet, despite not being native to The Americas, dandelions have established themselves as important wildflowers throughout the United States, most of Canada, and even in much of Mexico. Because they bloom so early in the year, they support a variety of native birds and pollinating insects, such as bumblebees, honeybees, butterflies, and moths. Butterfly and moth caterpillars — and backyard chickens — adore feasting on the leaves.

Despite most peoples’ loathing for dandelions, they aren’t usually much of a problem to native plants because they prefer the type of soils that most native plants cannot grow in. Dandelions’ long taproots (which inspire so much rage from gardeners) protect the soil by holding it in place to reduce wind and water erosion. (The roots also move nutrients such as calcium, iron, and potassium into the plants’ leaves, which then enrich the soil after the plant dies back seasonally.) These long taproots help aerate and moisten dry soil by creating channels for air and water to penetrate, and allowing earthworms to do their important work.

As any gardener knows, dandelions grow very quickly, spreading out and covering bare, disturbed soil, thereby providing shade and conserving moisture — important functions on this rapidly warming and increasingly thirsty planet.

Despite being a vegan’s dream food, a medicinal plant and an important ecosystem engineer, my favorite feature of dandelions — what makes me love them most — is the science and engineering underlying how they disperse their seeds.

Blowballs.

Dandelion seeds are some of the best flying seeds in nature, catching the wind with their fluffy parachutes, and allowing them to disperse as far as 100 kilometers away from their mother. Their secret? humidity.

Dandelion seeds evolved to be sensitive to the humidity in their environment and to respond so each seed’s fluffy parachute closes when the air is humid, so the seed stays close to its mother, whereas in drier, more windy conditions, dandelion seeds widen their parachutes to better catch the wind and thus, fly far, far away (ref). Even though I do understand the mechanics of this simple design, I am in awe that dandelion seeds can convert an environmental signal into movement — without using any energy.

Simple. Elegant. And beautiful.

That’s dandelions for you.

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