Dandelions: If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em

By Gary Raham
Nature Writer and Illustrator

Back to Gardening Articles List

Somewhere, sometime, dandelions got their reputations sullied in America. Instead of heralding their aesthetic, medicinal and nutritional values, we have waged war on them as weeds.

Although I can't yet vouch from personal experience about their gastronomic and health attributes, I've been impressed with what I've read. Perhaps these bright yellow lawn invaders should be treated as delightful crops rather than stubborn adversaries. You be the judge.

The botanical bible of eastern Colorado's plants, "Colorado Flora" by Weber and Wittman, says dandelions are alien invaders. The common name comes from the French: Dent de Lion or "Lion's Tooth." Presumably, the jagged leaves of the plant inspired the name.

The scientific name, Taraxacum officinale, which means "official remedy for disorders," implies that the botanists of 1780 saw significant value in the dandelion. Local writer Kathryn Cox in her "Pocket Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants" (Motherlove herbal company, 1996), claims that dandelion leaf tea is a good diuretic, the flower oil is good for stiff muscles and skin sores, and the tea can be splashed on skin to help remove wrinkles and age spots. She also claims the roots can be prepared to help liver and stomach conditions and stem juice can clear up warts. The dandelion sounds like a truly underappreciated "Wunder Weed."

Dine on dandelions

Many dandelion recipes testify that all parts of the plant may be devoured. Although old leaves are bitter, young greens make great salad material. Carol Williams in Backwoods Home Magazine (www.backwoodshome.com/articles/williamsc44.html) says greens "must be gathered before the plant blooms to be delicious. The best time to gather them is just when the bloom bud appears, before the stalk grows." She recommends washing the greens in water, boiling them for five minutes, then seasoning with butter and salt.

Cox suggests adding flower petals to flours and batters. Flowers can also be transformed into tea, wine, beer and syrup. Cox says to eat roots dry and roast them in a slow oven until brown (about four hours), grind and simmer 10 minutes "for a drink some liken to coffee with no caffeine." Boiled roots may be served as a vegetable.

And dandelions are good for you. The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides quotes USDA stats that say a serving of uncooked dandelion leaves contains 280 percent of an adult's daily beta carotene needs, more than half his or her vitamin C requirements, and is also rich in vitamin A. (I'm not sure what you lose in the cooking process.) See www.pesticide.org/dandelions.html for more information.

For those who would rather drink their weeds, dandelion wine recipes abound. Jack Keller at the Winemaking Home Page (www.winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp) lists three recipes. He claims consistent success with a recipe that calls for 2 quarts of dandelion flowers, 3 pounds of granulated sugar, 4 oranges, 1 gallon of water and yeast plus yeast nutrient. The recipe requires some patience: about 60 days for fermentation and bottling and six months to a year for aging. He says the secret to good wine is peeling the citrus fruit completely.

"The white pith in all citrus skins will ruin any wine," Keller claims.

Dandelion biology

Dandelions look like simple flowers, but they represent a flower colony nested on a head of green bracts. Each "petal" represents a showy flag for ray flowers on the outer margins of the colony and simpler flowers with sexual parts crowding the center of the head. Insects love these fast-food, multi-flower landing platforms.

The NCAP web site claims that dandelions attract ladybugs with their early spring production of pollen. Ladybugs, in turn, eat aphids that might otherwise decimate other, intentionally cultivated spring flowers. And those deep, dandelion taproots that seem headed for China? They successfully aerate the soil.

NCAP says the best defense against dandelion invasion is a thick, healthy lawn too crowded with grass to admit strangers. Also, never mow off more than a third of the height of grass at a time and don't over-water. Water deeply but less frequently and grass roots will grow deeper and out-compete the dandelions.

Dandelions in literature

As a science fiction nut, I first learned about dandelion wine in a book by that name by Ray Bradbury. The title invoked the long, lazy days of his boyhood in the Midwest. I recently learned of Eve Bunting's book, "Dandelions," illustrated by Greg Shed (Harcourt, 1995). A teacher's review praises it for its glimpse into American history and the hopeful symbol the dandelions present to a young girl when they flourish after transplanting onto the roof of her family's sod house.

And what photographer can resist photographing dandelion seeds jumping into the air, backlit by a sunrise or sunset? Add a child to the picture denuding a "blowball" (another common name for the dandelion) of its seeds, and parents and grandparents will clamor to buy the image.

So, what's the verdict? Will you add dandelions to your die --or at least to your short list of good plants? If I've convinced you of that, maybe I'll try something harder for another article. I read somewhere that insects may become the new "other white meat" of the future...