Dandelion

The dandelion is a common flowering plant that grows wherever someone has just finished weeding. It begins as a bright yellow flower, turns into a white puffball, and is then blown apart by a child, a breeze or a sighing gardener, in that order of frequency.^[1]

The name comes from the French dent de lion, meaning “lion's tooth”, after the jagged leaves. No lion has ever been consulted about this, and none has complained.

Dandelion clock

The seed head is known in Britain as a dandelion clock, because children blow on it and count the puffs it takes to clear the seeds to tell the hour. In 1961 the Royal Society for Horticultural Timekeeping tested 4,000 dandelion clocks against a real one. The dandelions were right twice a day, which the society noted was also true of a stopped clock, and it recommended that both be kept away from railway stations.^[2]

Wishes

Blowing on a seed head is widely believed to grant a wish. The most commonly reported wish is for there to be fewer dandelions, and since blowing on them is how dandelions spread their seeds, this is also why there are always more.^[3]

Relations with lawns

• Pulled up: grows back.
• Mown: grows back, shorter and more determined.
• Ignored: grows back, though it never went anywhere.
• Admired: suspicious, but grows back.

See also

• Sunflower – a larger yellow flower with better manners
• Four-leaf clover – another lawn-based luck system
• Wind – the dandelion's postal service
• Tulip mania – a flower that has never been expensive

References

1. Weed, W. (1961). Report on 4,000 Dandelion Clocks. Royal Society for Horticultural Timekeeping.
2. Puff, P. (1999). Lion's Teeth and Other Leaves. Lawn Press. p. 1.
3. Mower, M. (2015). “Why Are There More?” Garden Despair 3: 4–4.