I am now convinced we need to eat more dandelions. That’s why they’re here.
This all started a few days ago when I started seeing reports of hummingbirds being sighted in Nova Scotia. A bit early. What would they eat? It’s not like we’re exactly neck deep in blooming flowers at the moment.
So I started thinking about many of the things we have that do bloom early. Forsythia? It’s an import. Magnolia? Another import. Japonica? Again… an import. Very few early blooming plants are native.
But what about dandelions? Dandelions are everywhere fairly early. Surely they must be from here.
Nope. They came with European settlers. On purpose.
There are reports that dandelions can claim that their ancestors came over on the Mayflower. While the settlers on board the Mayflower struggled, the dandelions settled right in.
There are a lot of different types of dandelions, so there may be a few that are native, but most information seems to indicate they were brought in. The early settlers were looking for crops that were very nutritious and grew easily. One of those things was the dandelion. They will grow anywhere and they are very nutritious, so they were brought from Europe for settlers to eat.
And we’ve been trying to get rid of them ever since.
Somewhere along the line, we stopped eating so many dandelions. That could be the real problem. If we ate more, there would be fewer of them on our lawns. And, like many things, if we really wanted them, they would probably stop growing. Or at least become far more rare.
I’m not sure why a good meal of dandelions fell out of favour. Maybe because we tend to avoid things that are good for us. Or possibly because they really don’t taste very good. They can be a bit on the bitter side. And as a dog owner, I’d really want to spend a long time washing them. Maybe even use soap.
But if we want fewer dandelions on our lawns, we should probably put more on our plates. That’s why they came here in the first place.
