What a poor misunderstood and unappreciated weed!
They are sturdy and pop up just about anywhere and we spend all our time trying to eradicate them. They show up in the spring before the grass has even come back to life, and everyone begins pulling them out one by one. I prefer to tackled this unpleasant and tedious task as soon as possible since it minimizes their spread.
Dandelions are Taraxacums, asexual plants that seed without pollination. The word dandelion comes from the French 'dents de lion' which means lion's teeth. The whole plant is eadible. As a child, we ate the boiled leaves flavoured with olive oil and lemon juice. These leaves were longer, greener, and tasted rather bitter. Since then, I've managed to buy shorter ones (resembling the ones that grow in north america) and their flavour is less harsh. We also used them to make wreaths that we'd put on out heads. A simple task that brought lots of pleasure.
I love seeing an open green field dotted with their yellow flowers. Their seeded appearance with their matured pompoms always looks so magical, light, and precise. The globe shape made of the repeated pattern of their seeds is simply amazing and looks so architectural. Alas, the pleasure is always mixed. They are lovely to look at but at the same time I envision their feathery seeds flying in the wind and landing on our lawn ... where I then have to repeat my cycle of removal.
I found a lovely seeding dandelion in my backyard (one of the few that I didn't rip out). I grabbed my camera and looked forward to taking its picture. Nikita, my pup, eagerly followed me and approached the plant. I hushed her away and to my surprise she simply pounced on the dandelion and ripped off his head! Either she thought she was giving me a hand since she had witnessed me digging them out, or she felt jealous at the attention it was about to receive, or perhaps she was just being a playful pup. Nikita the lion catcher! Either way, that put a halt to my photo session but fortunately I found another one today!
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