Dandelion unofficial flower of the Off-Island
The adage that April showers bring May flowers could not be more appropriate for one specific variety of flower that permeates and spreads over lawns and roadsides all over the Off-Island.
I speak of the lowly Dent-deLion or Pissenlit, also known by its scientific name Taraxacum officinale. Surely, if there is one single flower that could garner bragging rights and be honoured with official flower status for the Off-Island area, the common dandelion is worthy. After all, is there a flower more prolific or visible in these parts, particularly at this time of year?
What with carpets of yellow spanning as far as the eye can see in fields and running adjacent to our common thoroughfares, these dew-laden golden delights signal spring and summer’s arrival in numbers that no other herbaceous perennial can rival.
“Piss-in-Beds” are a welcome flower for some, yet are despised and considered a nuisance weed by others, particularly in suburbia where carefully manicured lawns should not be subject to the threat of an annual golden invasion by hardy invaders of the yellow kind, according to many.
Others still, particularly in culinary circles, will search them out as precious additions to spring salads or as a primary ingredient. After all, everything down from the flower to the roots is edible. Toss in some adjacent growing clover for good measure.
Ask anyone who desires and devours these and they will tell you that the dandelion’s reputation as an undesirable weed is misguided at best. Perhaps too you may hear that should the dandelion disappear from our local landscape, bee populations would be threatened and along with them, that golden elixir, honey. Now becoming recognized as one of the primary and earliest appearing sources of food in spring for bees, an absence of dandelion could be devastating on other species of plants and trees that rely on bees for cross-pollination in order to thrive and survive. Can you say apple orchard?
Whether you love them or hate them, their existence here is important to be sure.
Already, as they sprout en masse locally, we witness homeowners removing them from lawns with vigour manually while our mailboxes overfill with advertised offers to remove them via one service or another, or by regularly timed applications of weed-destroying sprays and products.
Admittedly here at our house, we have removed a few hundred early risers by hand in the past week already. We know not why now, as they shall reappear as fast as we can remove them. If the effort is futile and the result potentially harmful by doing so, then why eliminate them at all is the question. Perhaps this household needs to re-evaluate its lawn priorities to include dandelion preservation and cultivation from here on in?
For the record, should you weigh on the side of wanting to apply any form of herbicide, “green” or not, you would be wise to check in with your local town bylaws prior. The province, along with most municipalities, outlaws the application of specific weed killers and the use of pesticides for good reason. Not only can they harm the dandelions and the bees, but us all.
If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em, I say.