May 25, 2013 – I’ve been a bit delinquent with my 113 Challenge and am going back though photos I’ve taken since the year began to see what I’ve overlooked. I took some decent images on our road trip up to Prince George the other week, but in light of the circumstances surrounding the trip, I hadn’t even pulled them off that camera.
Somehow it lifted my mood to see that the first shot was a dandelion. I took this at the side of the road where we were stopped for construction.
Even a weed can be a bright spot in a day if you stop and look at it differently. And really, if you look at a dandelion closely and think about it, it’s really an amazing plant. Dandelions are completely edible (think dandelion tea, dandelion greens, etc), and their flower is actually a floret made up of many very small flowers collected together into a composite head. The name dandelion comes from the French dent-de-lion, meaning “lion’s tooth”.
And it that isn’t interesting enough, when they are ready to reproduce, they metamorphose into a seed head that is comprised of asexually produced seeds, no pollination required.
Anyone who has lived with dandelions can remember every plucking the mature seed heads and blowing those little parachutes off into the breeze, much to the dismay of every gardening parent 🙂
I will always remember watching my grandmother out on the lawn manually digging up every dandelion by its root. She was a force to contend with where her yard was concerned and those bright yellow spots on the green grass were a total affront to her. I have to say that I am glad that there are places that have initiated bylaws against pesticide use for dandelions. What real harm does something bright, yellow, and cheerful, really do? I’d rather smile at the sunniness they bring to the landscape instead of try to beat a lawn into perfect submission.
Instead of seeing the negatives, isn’t it more fun to change your perspective and see the positives? And the next time you see a mature dandelion head, pick it, blow on it, and smile as those tiny parachutes float away to the unknown.
#8 – Yellow and Green
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