Don’t Dismiss The Dandelion

Photo: John Gill

Totally unjustified in being classed as a 'weed' the humble dandelion is one of the most attractive of our wild British plants. Indeed an unimproved pasture in late April or early May, an absolute riot of yellow, must be one of the most beautiful sights of our countryside year.

Not only attractive but useful too. Dandelion gets its name from the jagged green leaves from the French 'Dent de lion' or 'lion’s tooth' and these leaves were very popular in salads being a substitute for lettuce before the days of year-round production. Increasingly they are being re-found as a salad crop. The flowers, an important nectar source, also make a light white wine or cordial. Finally the roots were regularly roasted and ground to make a coffee substitute in World War Two and back in fashion today as an organic and decaffeinated drink. Medicinally the whole plant is useful as a diuretic and one of its common names, Jack-piss-the-bed, reflects this. What's weedy about all that?

But to the botanist Taraxacum officinale presents more of a problem as it is not just one species but an aggregate of numerous micro species; approximately 240 occur in Britain of which about 40 are endemic and 100 introduced. Roughly grouped into nine ill-defined sections they are notoriously difficult to identify. Perhaps the easiest for the beginner is the Section Erythrospema of which we have several Wirral representatives. Growing on the sandy soil of our dune coast, they tend to be small and with very dissected leaves. Plants with hardly dissected leaves often blotched and with a red or purple midrib might belong to either Section Hamata or Celtica whilst the vast majority of our Wirral species belong to Section Ruderalia. Implying growing in ruderal or weedy habitats they are the ones you are most likely to see on roadsides or in your garden.

Cheshire would appear to have a wide range of Taraxacum species as the late Chester botanist, Tom Edmondson, was able to identify them. However the different micro species aren't recorded in Alan Newton’s 1971 Flora of Cheshire. There's plenty of scope for someone locally to take up the hobby of Taraxacology!

Barbara Greenwood