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Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale )

Dandelion | William O'Brien State Park, MN | View Enlarged Image

If you put aside all the Danelion's negative qualities, it really is an amazing plant. Its leaves can be used for salad or brewed for tea, they can be used to make wine, and their roots can be dried and ground up as a coffee substitute. They're high in vitamins and pottasium, and have a lot of medicinal properties. The problem is that Dandelions, a non-native weed imported from Europe, have developed such a knack for survival.

Deep roots and low-growing leaves are a Dandelion's first line of defense. Since the Dandelion's toothed leaves as pressed close to the ground, mowing does little to no good. The leaves continue to feed the roots, and the flower buds will regenerate (and probably seed) before the next mow. Their next defense is a top-notch offense; Dandelions have evolved an ingenious means of spreading themselves. As most people know, when a Dandelion matures, it turns into a puffball containing hundreds of tiny, fuzzy-topped seeds that can travel on the wind. From one hilly roadside, a patch of dandelion flowers can dispatch an armada of seeds on a blitzkrieg course into every lawn and park for miles around.

Since the prolific Dandelion can produce seeds from spring to late fall, they are nearly impossible to eradicate, and many lawn owners resort to broad-leaved herbicide. This can be very unfortunate for anything touched by the runoff, including nearby wetlands and the water table. One of the best ways to attack them without using poison is to penetrate and loosen the tap root. There are many gardening tools designed specifically to deal with Dandelions.

Some interesting Dandelion facts:

• The name Dandelion is French, as their leaves were named "dent-de-lion", or teeth of the lion. This led to the common nickname "Lion's Tooth".

Multimedia:

Dandelion head | Stillwater, MN	Field of Dandelions | Stillwater, MN	Dandelion Seed head | Stillwater, MN

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