Dandelion

“ The golden flowers of the dandelion are shut up every night. They are folded up so closely in their green coverings, that they look like buds that have never yet been opened. The blossoms of the salsify, or vegetable oyster, close in the same manner, but not at the same time. They close always at noon. In the morning their tall, straight stalks make quite a brilliant appearance, each one having a deep purple flower at its top. All these are shut up in the afternoon, and you see at the top of each stalk a large pointed bud. ”

“ Now, in the morning As we sit in the sunshine on the seat by the little shrine, And look at the mountain-walls, Walls of blue shadow, And see so near at our feet in the meadow Myriads of dandelion pappus Bubbles ravelled in the dark green grass Held still beneath the sunshine— It is enough, you are near— The mountains are balanced, The dandelion seeds stay half-submerged in the grass; You and I together We hold them proud and blithe On our love. They stand upright on our love, Everything starts from us, We are the source. ”

“ A cloudy dandelion ball in the grass doubtless looks inviting to the nest-builder, but how much of this tuft would the bird be able to secure in her bill when a mere touch or breath perhaps is sufficient to scatter the ball to the breeze? No; I cannot believe my bird of the dandelion nest wasted her energies in picking up a single seed here and there from a dandelion ball, or perhaps on the wing. A discovery of a few years ago has shown me how dandelion seeds may be cleverly gathered by a shrewd nest-builder, and how a whole nest may be feathered with them without much labor. ”

“ In some cases the outgrowth is part of the pericarp, in others it is an appendix carried by the seed itself, while in the lime it is the bract upon which the flowers were formerly borne.
The dandelion fruit.—The fruit of the dandelion (Fig. 136) affords one of the best possible examples of wind-dispersal. It will be remembered (p. 113) that what is commonly called the flower of the dandelion is really a head of perhaps 300 complete flowers: each with a hairy calyx-tube, a yellow, strap-shaped corolla, five stamens, and a pistil. ”

“ While they are singing they are busy cutting out the green germs of the elm flakes, and going down to the ground and tearing open the closed dandelion-heads that have shut up to ripen their seeds, preparatory to their second and ethereal flowering when they become spheres of fragile silver down.
Whether this annual reunion of the goldfinches should be called a dandelion festival, or a new-coat festival, or whether it is to bring the sexes together preliminary to the mating-season, I am at a loss to decide. It usually lasts a week or more, and continues on wet days as well as on fair. ”

“ Don’t scorn this little flower, Janet, because you say it grows commonly everywhere. The field and roadside blossoms have the greatest mission in God’s flower kingdom. Because they are told to brighten and cheer all climes and creatures. Besides this, the dandelion has a most interesting construction and its great sweetness offers unlimited nectar and pollen to the bees and birds. ”

“ When the dandelion looks up at the sun, it shakes out its golden tresses from the green flower-cup.
See the tall, round stem—pale green, with tints of red.
What colors do you see in the long, narrow, hooked leaves? Do they grow on the flower-stem? ”

“ The leaves form a spreading rosette on the very short stem; they are smooth, of a bright shining green, sessile, and tapering downwards. The name dandelion is derived from the French dent-de-lion, an appellation given on account of the tooth-like lobes of the leaves. The long tap-root has a simple or many-headed rhizome; it is black externally, and is very difficult of extirpation. The flower-stalks are smooth, brittle, leafless, hollow, and very numerous. ”

“ Burroughs writes of the dandelion:—"After its first blooming, comes its second and finer and more spiritual inflorescence, when its stalk, dropping its more earthly and carnal flower, shoots upward and is presently crowned by a globe of the most delicate and aerial texture. It is like the poet's dream, which succeeds his rank and golden youth. This globe is a fleet of a hundred fairy balloons, each one of which bears a seed which it is destined to drop far from the parent source." ”

“ Any one who doubts the dandelion's fitness to survive should humble himself by spending days and weeks on his knees, trying to eradicate the plant from even one small lawn with a knife, only to find the turf starred with golden blossoms, or, worse still from his point of view, hoary with seed balloons the following spring. ”

“ All the loveliness of fled summers returns to the mind. The spread disk of the dandelion, so richly hued, is more beautiful now, bearing in its colour so many hopes of the past. A common flower, a despised weed, yet a symbol of that pulsing golden happiness that is the heritage unclaimed of so many. The bees and the birds need no philosopher’s stone, they have something better in the sweet air, they live every moment happily. ”

“ For those who love the bitter tang of the dandelion as a green, the cultivated affords a much finer dish than the wild as the leaves are double the size of the wild dandelion. The seed should be sown in drills, covering very lightly and shading with newspapers or brush until up. Thin to stand a foot apart and blanch, if desired, by inverting a box or flower-pot over each plant, or a cone of stiff paper can be used. For greens, only the top may be removed but for salad the plant may be cut down to the root, the part beneath the surface of the ground being very white and tender. ”

“ I was tugging with my fingers at a great dandelion which had come up directly between two strawberry-plants, trying to pull it up, when its brittle leaves broke off in my hand, leaving the root in the ground. Mr. Logan, seeing the operation, observed,—
"No use in cutting it off; the root must come out, or it will grow thicker and stronger, and plague you every season"; and plying the corner of his hoe all round the neck of the dandelion, so as to loosen the earth a considerable depth, he thrust his fingers down, seized the root, and drew forth a thick white fibre at least a foot long. ”

“ The dandelion seems to fully appreciate the great advantages of securing the services of insects, for it appeals most strongly to their love of bright colors and their passion for sweets. As the flowers open, each tiny golden cup is filled to the brim with purest nectar, and he must be a very dull insect, indeed, that cannot see the brilliant head of flowers as far as he can see anything. At any rate, it is not the dandelion's fault if he does not, for the blossom is placed where it will be as conspicuous as possible. ”

“ That is because the Stir-about Wife likes best to brew golden spells that will make folk happy, and of course dandelions are the flowers you use for golden spells.
But the very next day after Wee-Wun had passed, when she came into her garden to gather every twentieth dandelion she could hardly see a dandelion because of the blow-aways that were growing everywhere, and casting their fluff into the dandelions' eyes. ”

“ He loves me not," is a sacrificial episode in the life of the daisy wherever it grows.
The still younger maiden with her dandelion ball, whose feathered parachutes must be dislodged upon the breeze with three puffs from her little puckered mouth, with all sorts of fate depending upon the odd or even number of the remnant seeds, is as universal as the dandelion itself, while the more homely symbols of wish-bone, horseshoe, or horsechestnut, [214] as we all know, are proverbially potent as personal or household charms against ill luck. ”

“ The seed of the common dandelion, so dear to children in their play-hours, when they amuse themselves by puffing at the white plumy globes which tip the ripe dandelion flower-stalks, is a very interesting object even to their parents, on account of its beautiful structure, and the wonderful way in which it is adapted to the place which it fills. Fig. 45 represents the seed portion of one of these objects, together with a part of the parachute stem, the remainder of that appendage being shown lying across the broken stem. ”

“ Deep, very deep, the stocky bitter root penetrates where heat and drought affect it not, nor nibbling rabbits, moles, grubs of insects, and other burrowers break through and steal. Cut off the upper portion only with your knife, and not one, but several, plants will likely sprout from what remains; and, however late in the season, will economize stem and leaf to produce flowers and seeds, cuddled close within the tuft, that set all your pains at naught. "Never say die" is the dandelion's motto. An exceedingly bitter medicine is extracted from the root of this dandelion. ”

“ The Dandelion is the most common of flowers. It is found in the four quarters of the globe, near the pole as beneath the equator, on the margin of rivers and streams as well as on sterile rocks. It serves the shepherd instead of a clock, while its feathery tufts are his barometer, predicting calm or storm. The globes formed by the seeds of the Dandelion are used for other purposes. If you are separated from the object of your love, pluck one of those feathery spheres, charge each of the little feathers with a tender thought; turn toward the spot where the loved one dwells ”

“ Dwarf Dandelion; Cynthia (Krigia virginica) is a tiny little plant as compared to the common dandelion. The leaves are all basal on rather long petioles; they are coarsely and sharply, or laciniately, toothed. Numerous unbranching, slender flower scapes rise from these tufts of basal leaves, each bearing at the summit a little golden-rayed flower resembling a dandelion.
Cynthia is a very common native species and is found blooming from April until July in dry fields, open wilds, or sandy soil, from southern Canada to the Gulf. ”

“ There were big onion-like daffodils, neat crocuses with an impatient little yellow horn sticking up, fritillary roots, bottle-shaped tulips, the corms of anemones, and the orris of the iris. Then, trowel in hand, each with a bag of bulbs taken haphazard out of the wheelbarrow and with a bag of sand to make a delectable sprouting-place for the roots, we started. Every dandelion encountered was to be dug up with honesty and thoroughness, and where the dandelion had been there was to be planted a bulb taken at random out of the bag. Helen said it would take ten {121}years. ”

“ Boys are often hired to dig dandelion roots out of lawns, and near large cities poor women may often be seen digging them out for the sake of the young leaves which, when they first come up in the spring, make very good “greens.” These people sell them or eat them instead of spinach. Tender young dandelion leaves are very good indeed, and some people like them better than spinach. ”

“ The root of the dandelion is round, rough, tapering from crown to tip, almost black on the outside, brittle but tough, hollow in the middle, giving it strength with lightness, and with many root-hair water suckers. The leaves grow in spreading, flattened circles from the crown, with the flower stems set around the inner circle. Rain, falling on leaves and flowers, drains right into the hollow root. ”

“ At first sight, the coltsfoot might be [18] mistaken for a small dandelion. It is easily distinguishable from that despised, but useful plant, by the scales upon its stem, the stalk of the dandelion being perfectly smooth. The leaves and flowers of the dandelion open, moreover, simultaneously. The coltsfoot, like the flower it imitates, holds high repute among the “yarb–doctors,” who know more of the genuine properties of our native plants than it is common to give them credit for.
On the banks of the Bollin and its little tributaries grows also that curious plant, the butter–bur. ”

“ Perhaps some of you have gardens or grass plots at your own homes. If you see some dandelions in the lawn, or groundsel among the flowers or vegetables in the garden beds, you say, "Those weeds must be pulled up." You call the Dandelion and the Groundsel weeds, but they have flowers all the same; the Dandelion is perhaps one of the most lovely yellow flowers that we have.
They are weeds certainly in your lawn or garden beds, for they ought not to be there. Weeds are plants in the wrong place. By and by, in the farmer's fields, we shall see many pretty flowers which he calls weeds. ”

“ The small flowers are grouped in dandelion-like heads, with many fine fringy rays; all colored alike a bright yellow. The head is held in a deep, leafy cup that is green strongly tinged with reddish-brown; it grows on a stout, grooved, roughish stem, which bears several, small, brownish scales; it rises from the ground before the leaves.
The Coltsfoot, introduced from England, has become thoroughly naturalized here. Its blossoms bear a certain superficial resemblance to the Dandelion, though really different in habits of growth. ”

“ It is nonsense to declare that there is no higher and lower. We know full well that the dandelion belongs to a higher cycle of existence than the hartstongue fern, that the ant’s is a higher form of existence than the dandelion’s, that the thrush is higher than the ant, that Timsy the cat, is higher than the thrush, and that I, a man, am higher than Timsy. ”

“ The reason they were able to spread so is that the dandelion seeds were able to fly.
If they had not flown away but had dropped down close to the parent plant and grown there, they would not have been allowed to spread much; for people do not like dandelions in their fields and lawns, and try hard to root them out. ”