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- Dandelions grow in clumps on Cowbar, mainly near the paths where the grass is shorter.
- It flowers early in the year and keeps going well into the autumn, with one of the longest flowering seasons of any plant.
- Bees need dandelion as an early source of nectar when they come out of hibernation.
- Its name is from the French ‘dent-de-lion’ meaning ‘lion’s tooth, because of the plant’s rough, tooth shaped leaves.
- Egyptians, Greeks, Romans were all familiar with dandelions and they’ve been used in Chinese traditional medicines for over a thousand years. Folk medicine uses it to treat infections and liver disorders. Dandelion tea is a diuretic (makes you pee). Every part of the plant – root, leaves and flower, – is useful for food (e.g. dandelion honey), drink (tea and wine and beer) and medicine and dye.
- Until the 1800s, people would pull grass out of their lawns to make way for dandelions and other useful ‘weeds’ such as chickweed and chamomile.
- Dandelions improve soil by loosening it with their roots and adding calcium from their dying leaves. They also help improve acidic soil.
- If you mow a lawn of dandelions, the plants will just grow back with shorter stems. They are survivors.
- The flowers do not need to be pollinated to spread seed. The tiny seed parachutes can travel miles from the parent plant.
