dandy: the lion's teeth
the much maligned dandelion; the lawnsman's foe!
my aunt phoned today. i remember when she made dandelion wine and we went out into the fields as a group to collect the heads for her. a lot of heads are needed to make a bottle of wine, it's a good job they're not shy flowers.
during the war when coffee was rationed, some folk would collect the roots and roast them before grinding to a powder to make the coffee go further - sometimes they just had the roots and no coffee. i believe the leaves can be eaten like lettuce and the seed heads can be used to tell the time. you blow gently and count how many breathes it takes to disperse all the parachutes - the number of breaths required equals the hour of the day. it works so long as you're not in a hurry - which if you're blowing dandelion clocks, you're obviously not.
dandelion is a corruption of dent de lion which means ''teeth of lion''.
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www.lanaveargos.blogspot.com
The genus name of the dandelion comes from the Greek word taraxos, which means disorder, and akos, which means remedy. The species name, officinale, means that it is used medicinally. The common name may come from the Greek word leontodon, which means lion’s tooth. Other sources claim the word dandelion comes from the old French word Dent-de-lion or from the Latin dens leonis, both also meaning lion’s tooth or teeth.
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