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Hi it's the sixteenth of May and today we're looking at Dandelions.
Ok, well there's quite a lot to say about Dandelions, so I'll try and run through everything
as quickly as possible... Um.. well firstly, I'm sure you're all familiar
with what they look like. You've got this... this yellow flower which is a composite flower,
composed of lots of small flowers. It's a member of the Composite family of plants.
And I'm sure you're familiar with the... the seeds... seedheads with these wind blown seeds
that blow away, here... And the leaves which have this er... toothed
appearance, which um... well the French name is Dent-de lion, "tooth of lion", from which
we get our name, Dandelion. And it has this long tap root. that can reach
down quite some distance. In rich soil, the roots have a forked appearance,
but where they have to reach further to find nutrients, the tap roots can go several feet
down. Now the long tap root, is er... what enables
Dandelions to gather nutrition so easily, hence you'll quite often see them growing
out of concrete and things like that anf um... yeah, they're known in the world of permaculture,
as a hyper-accumulator, because they bring nutrients from... from deep down and bring
them up to the surface and they're really good for improving soils.
And er... all parts of the plant are edible - the flowers, the roots the leaves. They
can be a little bit bitter. I personally find with the roots at least, it's best to soak
them in water for a day or two and they lose some of their bitterness.
And er... the flowers, they're quite surprising. If you get one like this, that's been here
in the sunshine - full sunshine - it's a nice fresh flower... they's quite surprisingly
sweet. And the Latin name "officinale", is er...
a name that was given to lots of plants which had er... a specific medicinal use and Dandelions
are absolutely packed with all kinds of beneficial alkaloids and chemicals and vitamins.
Dandelions contain; vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, vitamin
B12, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, Iron, Calcium, Pottassium, Phosphorous, Magnesium
and Zinc. Now a commmon name in France was um... ***
a lit, which means er... wet the bed, I guess, um... and this because Dandelions are a diuretic.
And the problem with a lot of diuretics is, you lose Pottassium when you go to the loo
basically, but um.. the good thing about Dandelions is they've got so much Pottassium in them,
that you don't lose any. You gain Pottassium from eating them.
And er.. they also contain er... a chemical called Taraxin. Which um.. this clears the
blood and it's... it's anti-inflammatory on your liver. And yeah, it's a specific treatment
for Hepatitis and... and jaundice related illnessses.
The bitter taste of Taraxin, also helps deter herbivores from eating the Dandelion. Horses
in particular, choose to avoid it. And another thing with Taraxin is it um...
it stimulates bile secretion, so um... which helps you break up things like gall stones
and kidney stones, so it's a useful treatment for that as well.
And er... it's a real shame that a er... a certain multi-national aggro-chemical company
is currently running an advertising campaign that is, declaring war on Dandelions, using
Glyphosate weeedkiller, which will eventually poison your soil.
Although it degrades relatively quickly, the effects of Glyphosate herbicide can be more
far-reaching. Glyphosate works, by killing off most of the microbial life that is in
contact with the plant's roots, leaving mainly pathogens that then attack the plant, which
is now without it's natural defences. Too much herbicide, means too many pathogens and
dead, infertile soil. And I'm sure if um.. Dandelions didn't grow
so easily and they weren't such a... a ubiquitous plant all over the place, then they'd probably
sell for £3.99 a packet of twenty seeds, in your local garden centre.
And er.. Dandelions certainly used to be considered a... a valuable garden plant, before the introduction
of lawns, when lawns became popular, but then suddenly they became seen as weed, but before
then, they were probably eaten as soon as they were seen growing or used for a medicinal
purpose. Well they're still eaten in parts of Europe anyway, so, there you go.
And they're a great nectar plant. I dunno if you can see, there's a nice Brimstone butterfly
here on this Dandelion. and it's just feeding there. Very nice. Yeah, so all those flowers
- all those florets in there are full of nectar, hence they're sweet and they're great for
insects. Now there's a lot been said about Dandelions
and I don't want to repeat too much what other people have said already, but um... there
is one thing which um... I'm sure you probably haven't seen before. If you take one of these...
these hollow stems... make a little slit in each side of it. Like so... and er... break
it off... And er... you can do this...
The Dandelon is attractive, nutritious, creates fertile soil, offers dozens of medicinal uses
and despite being much maligned by us humans, seems to prefer to grow near to us.
Maybe it's time we started seeing it as a friend :o)