The roots sink in deeper over the years, and can go down 15 feet. Their lifespan is long, too – an individual plant can live for years, so the dandelion lurking in a corner of the playground might be older than the children running past it. The sunny yellow flowers go from bud to seed in days. But why is this plant so hard to kill? It’s because they are fast growers. They can take root in places that seem little short of miraculous, and then are impossible to get rid of, as homeowners have found. While most think they’re a lawn killer, dandelions actually fertilize the grass.Ħ. The deep taproot pulls nutrients such as calcium from deep in the soil and makes them available to other plants. Their wide-spreading roots loosen hard-packed soil, aerate the earth and help reduce erosion. Illustration by Joan Jobson, copyright 2007.ĥ. Wine and tea are just two of the many uses for dandelions. Illustration by Joan Jobson, copyright 2007. Dandelions probably were brought to North America on the Mayflower for their medicinal qualities. Department of Agriculture reveal how dandelions probably helped alleviate many ailments: They have more vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes, and are a powerhouse of iron, calcium and potassium.Ī Pilgrim woman sowing seeds. In its time, “scurvy” was as dreaded a word as AIDS is today. In eras when vitamin pills were unknown, vitamin deficiencies killed millions. But it wasn’t until the twentieth century was the underlying cause of many of these symptoms realized: vitamin deficiencies. They were named after lions because their lion-toothed leaves healed so many ailments, great and small: baldness, dandruff, toothache, sores, fevers, rotting gums, weakness, lethargy and depression. Dandelions are more nutritious than most of the vegetables in your garden. To this day, herbalists hail the dandelion as the perfect plant medicine: It is a gentle diuretic that provides nutrients and helps the digestive system function at peak efficiency.Ĥ. In olden times, dandelions were also prescribed for every ailment, from warts to the plague. For millenniums, people have been using dandelion tonics to help body’s liver remove toxins from the bloodstream. The use of dandelions in the healing arts goes so far back that tracing its history is like trying to catch a dandelion seed as it floats over the grass. Dandelions are a green and growing first aid kit. In Japan for instance, whole horticultural societies formed to enjoy the beauty of dandelions and to develop exciting new varieties for gardeners.ģ. In the terrifying New World, the cheerful face of the dandelion was a sweet reminder of home. They were a common and beloved garden flower in Europe, and the subject of many poems. Dandelions were world-famous for their beauty. Dandelions probably arrived in North America on the Mayflower – not as stowaways, but brought on purpose for their medicinal benefits.Ģ. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans enjoyed the flower, and they have been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over a thousand years. Dandelions have deep roots in history throughout the ages. To show the benefits of the once-beloved plant, here are 10 ten things you might not know about dandelions.ġ. Nowadays, they’re also the most unpopular plant in the neighborhood – but it wasn’t always that way. But somewhere in the twentieth century, humans decided that the dandelion was a weed. Gardeners often weeded out the grass to make room for the dandelions. Dandelions are, quite possibly, the most successful plants that exist, masters of survival worldwide.īefore the invention of lawns, people praised the golden blossoms and lion-toothed leaves as a bounty of food, medicine and magic. They’re one species that just about anyone can identify at a glance, as familiar to humans as the dog. Whether you love them or hate them, dandelions are among the most familiar plants in the world. Readers can learn more lore about dandelions in The Teeth of the Lion by Anita Sanchez.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |