The Dandelion, and why you should leave it be!

The Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, is found all over the British isles and one of our most widespread and successful wildflowers.

The first part of its scientific name, Taraxos, derives from the Ancient Greek word for ‘chaos’, and akos meaning ‘remedy’, and it is does indeed grow chaotically almost everywhere and, as will be covered later in this article, is a remedy for all sorts of ailments.

Their common name originates from the french name for them ‘Dent-de-leon’, or ‘Lion’s teeth’, referring to the toothed edges of the leaves.

There are over 250 species of Dandelion in the UK, not just Taraxacum officinale, and many similar looking plants too, but we’ll just stick to the most common species here, to identify a true Dandelion there are 3 simple methods;

1. ⁠Pull the flower off, the stalk should be hollow and exude white sap, this has a diuretic effect which has led to a range of country names for the plant, such as ‘piss-a-bed’ and ‘wet-a-bed’, which translates as ‘pissenlit’ in French!
2. ⁠The triangular toothed leaves should point in the direction of the base of the leaf.
3. ⁠Turn the leaf over and run your finger along the centre ‘vein’, this should be smooth, if it is hairy it is not a Dandelion.

Prolific and ubiquitous

Dandelions grow in almost any habitat, their unmistakable yellow flowers, downy seed-heads and familiar toothed leaves can be seen in hedgerows and pastures, meadows and parks, roadside verges and, most infamously, gardens all over the country. They are at their most prolific in early spring and summer, but continue to flower and seed until well into the autumn so are one of the most dependable and consistent food sources for many species.

Many of our native insects, including the Violet Oil Beetle which I’ve just written about, rely upon the Dandelion as a food source for themselves and for their larvae, several of our native butterflies and moths lay their eggs on Dandelion leaves and the bright yellow flowers, with their generous stores of nectar, are a magnet to pollinating insects like bees and hoverflies. The seed heads are also a valuable food source for seed eating birds like Goldfinch.

Coloniser and soil conditioner

Dandelions are among the very first colonisers of waste ground and along with other colonising plants they will help to stabilise the soil conditions, attract other species into the area and eventually develop a rich, stable ecosystem. One of the things that makes the Dandelion such an effective coloniser is its method of seed dispersal.

The downy parasol of the seed-head is made up of many seeds, over 100 in an individual flower head, and each seed is suspended on an individual gossamer parachute ready to be carried away to new grounds by the slightest breeze. As children, most of us have unwittingly helped the Dandelion in its colonisation by collecting and blowing the seed heads, or ‘clocks’, as they are also known.

Recycling nutrients

The long central taproot of the Dandelion is particularly effective at drawing nutrients and water deep from in the soil and its leaves become packed with these valuable nutrients. So when the plant dies (or is pulled up by a gardener and added to the compost heap), these nutrients are released back into the topmost layers of the soil and made available to other plants.

A very useful weed

It might be an alien concept to most gardeners, but allowing Dandelions to grow in the garden, rather than trying to eradicate them, (which is notoriously hard), and harvesting the leaves as compost material, is an excellent way of recycling nutrients in the soil and keeping your garden’s soil fertile.

The curative power of the Dandelion has also been advocated as a treatment for a wide variety of ailments, including liver complaints, digestive problems, gall stones, warts, and haemorrhoids, just to name a few, which also makes it a fairly useful plant to have around!

Other uses of the plant have been well documented, its young leaves make an excellent salad and when dried are a common ingredient in many herbal drinks, the most well-known one being Dandelion and Burdock. The flowers can also be made into Dandelion wine, and the dried roots, when they are roasted and ground, are supposed to make an effective, ‘hard times’, substitute for coffee.

I’ll take people’s word about the coffee! but I have made Dandelion syrup quite a few times and it’s rather nice so I’ll post the recipe for that soon.

in recognition of how important wildflowers like the Dandelion are the month of May has been designated as ‘No Mow May’ to give these wildflowers and the species which depend upon them a fighting chance, so why not try to rethink your definition of ‘weed’ and give Dandelions a corner of your garden?

A B-H