Dandelions - weed or wonder?

I’ve been thinking a lot about dandelions recently.

There seem to have been masses of them flowering and setting seed in the country lanes and grass verges. I wonder if this because many people, myself included and the council too perhaps, have been doing No May May and not cutting the grass to let the wildflowers flourish and provide food for pollinators.

Judy has already highlighted the importance of dandelions as a source of nectar for bees. The yellow flowers are certainly a cheering spectacle at this time of year and dandelion clocks blowing away are a magical sight for children, if not for the gardener.

However, I must admit that is it difficult for me not to think of the dandelion as a weed - all those airborne seeds floating about to settle in my beds and borders, germinating and sinking a long tap root into the soil beyond the reach of a trowel, so that if I leave just a little bit behind it will re-sprout.

Therefore it was a surprise to hear, from James Wong, that in Singapore they are considered prized exotics to such an extent that people smuggle the seeds into country. Changi Airport in Singapore even has glass sculptures of dandelion clocks. So the magic of the floating seeds is not lost on Singaporeans perhaps because, unlike conditions here, in the heat and humidity of tropics the seeds struggle to survive.

But there is more -there are health benefits! Dandelion leaves are a well know diuretic, to the extent that the French refer to them as ‘piss-en-lit’. Apparently dandelion leaves are extremely high in vitamin A and C, twice as high as spinach, with five times the RDA of vitamin K - so very nutritious. The French and Italians would say delicious too - they prize the bitter taste of the young leaves. The roots can be roasted as a substitute for coffee, and the sap in the stem can even be used to cure warts.

Mmmmm, maybe not so bad after all. The flowers are certainly pretty, and a vegetable which drifts into the garden and sows itself with no effort from the gardener at all - what’s not to like?