Dandelions

Everybody recognizes dandelions. They belong to a large genus called taraxacum.

The common dandelion is a species known as Taraxacum officinale. That is the kind I have growing on my property in abundance.

Often people think of dandelions as invasive weeds, but actually they have many uses.

When the fruit trees and the serviceberry and the redbud and the Weigela have stopped flowering, the bees on my property can still gather nectar from dandelions.

This is important, because for a bee species to thrive, it has to find flowers throughout the season, and not just for a brief period.

There is also some nutritional value in the leaves of the common dandelion and many recipes for how to prepare them.

My favorite view of a dandelion is when it is ripe, just before the little parachutes fly every which way in the wind.

It is nice also to watch them blown by the wind or to let a small child help them blow away.

Rather than work so hard to replace naturally occurring dandelions with a thick lawn of useless grass that needs constant watering and mowing, why not exploit the valuable resources that dandelions provide?