If I hadn't written a chapter on dandelions, I would never have learned what wonderful, resilient, beneficial plants they are: long roots that take moisture way into the ground (moisture that collects on those long leaves that have a gutter down their center for rain and dew and the residue from garden sprinklers to run down); early to bloom (although I'm not sure that applies in Southern California) so they're an early source of food for pollinators; invaluable as a biomonitor since they will flourish almost anywhere but those hardy roots will tell you how much heavy metal pollution there is in the soil. And the leaves are edible, and are effective diuretics, and and and. And they're cheerful. So don't dig them up, please.
I didn’t know any of these facts about the humble dandelion! We have spent hours digging them up from our garden… but in the future, we’ll leave them be.
ReplyDeleteCan’t wait to read your chapter/book!
Truly, dandelions are vegetative heroes! Be kind to them.
ReplyDelete