Why do we hate their sunny little faces so much?
I always thought the name ‘Dandelion’ was a reference to their yellow heads being like a lion’s mane. I was incorrect. The name is, instead, derived from the French phrase ‘dents de lion’, which means lion tooth. The shape of this plant’s leaves resembles a lion’s tooth. I’d like to know who made that connection and how.
It has other, less pleasant, names too though; in different parts of the world, the names can include cankerwort, wild endive, pissenlit, yellow gowan, puff ball, and blow ball.
Dandelions have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for around a thousand years. Considered as a native to Mediterranean, dandelion plants were known by ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks. The leaves and roots of the plant were medicinally used as a tonic for removing toxins from bloodstream, as they serve as a mild diuretic to improve the digestive system functioning.
Ancient physicians were not really up on vitamin and nutrition deficiencies, but they discovered that that dandelions were beneficial for use against fevers, toothaches, constipation, anemia, arthritis, diabetes, gall bladder problems, heartburn, skin irritations, and liver, and stomach and kidney disorders. Modern herbalists now know that dandelions are a source of Vitamins A, E, and C, as well as iron, zinc, and calcium.
The beauty of the plants was also appreciated back in history and a pale yellow dye was made from the flower while a purplish hue was derived from inner ribs of dandelion leaves.
Some dandelion species are native to North America but, according to historians, early European settlers had introduced the plant’s two most familiar species – the common dandelion and the red-seeded dandelion – to the New World owing to their medicinal and nutritional benefits. Both of these dandelion types have naturalized and are found abundantly across the country.
So people actually imported dandelions.
In other garden news….the garlic chives are about to flower 🙂
