The unhumble dandelion and its imitators

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinialis).

By Dorothy Dobbie

The Dandelion

The poor dandelion has been given a wickedly bad name, but are we assigning it some of the blame that should be attributed to look-a-likes? There are quite a number of these imposters filling our lawns and lurking in road allowances and ditches.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinialis) is a useful and benign plant. While it does nothing to enhance the look of a perfectly groomed lawn, in springtime its pretty yellow flowers attract children and bees to collect little bouquets of love and gain sustenance.

All parts of the dandelion are edible and the fresh new leaves are a spring tonic in salads (they are full of nutrition, but get bitter as they mature), the flowers can be made in to wine or used to make yellow dye, the amazing tap root can be ground into a coffee substitute or made into a tea useful for everything from boosting liver, kidney and bowel function to, according to legend, increasing psychic abilities and, brewed with leaves, calling up spirits when set in a steaming tea beside your bed!

But the tap roots are even more clever than that. Small pieces left in the ground can regenerate a new dandelion. While the roots do not travel horizontally, they certainly can travel deep, usually existing in the top 6 to 18 inches of soil but, when necessary, drilling down 10 feet. This is not a bad thing. The roots bring useful nutrients to the surface and while doing so, they aerate your lawn.

By the way, rabbits like dandelions, enticing the critters away from your bulbs in springtime.

Dandelions have a few other tricks. The flowers know to open an hour after sunrise. They close to rain and at night to preserve their pollen and nectar, and seeing petals close in daytime is a pretty good predictor of rain. Sap from the stems has been used to cure warts and corns.

But that is just the common dandelion. There are several plants with dandelion-like blooms that are often mistaken for the sunshine rays of the dandelion flower.

Cat’s ear (Hypochaeris radicata).

False dandelion

Hypochaeris radicata or the false dandelion or cat’s ear stems can rise 20 inches. The leaves hug the ground in rosettes that resemble dandelions, but cat’s ear leaves are not as deeply notched. Like dandelions, their leaves are edible—and hairy. The stems are not hollow, they are branching, but they do emit a milky sap.

Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa).

Wild lettuce

Lactuca virosa has oval leaves with prickles on the ends and stems filled with medicinal-smelling sap that has some

interesting properties. When dried, this sap turns brown and is known as lactucarium. It can be dissolved in wine to create a soothing drink to relieve pain and help sleep. The drink eases coughs and colic and is a diuretic like dandelion but doesn’t cause an upset stomach.

Some of its common names are opium lettuce (all lettuce is somewhat narcotic, but the leaves of this plants deliver the most potent dose), bitter lettuce, and green endive.

Hawkweed (Heracium aurantiacum).

Hawkweed

Heracium aurantiacum flowers are orange and occur mainly in BC in Canada, where they are invasive nusiance. It has underground creeping roots that quickly populate large areas and outcompete other plants because they release a chemical to discourage germination of competing plant seeds.

The yellow-flowered variety of hawkweed (H. umbellatum, some call it H. canadense) can be found throughout Canada. It can get quite tall, growing at much as six feet and as small as six inches. Both varieties have milky latex sap in hairy, branching stems, 10 to 36 inches tall. The lanceolate leaves are not notched and have sharp teeth intermittently along the edges.

Their dandelion-looking flowers have notched tips on the petals.

As do all the others, hawkweed produces wind-blown parachute seeds.

Sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceu

Sow thistle

Sonchus oleraceus or milk thistle is another look-a-like, but it truly is a thistle with prickly leaves. It is closest to wild lettuce in appearance. A good host to aphids, it will grow in the hardest clay soil and comes in both perennial and annual varieties. Surprisingly, rabbits like this one, too.

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara).

Coltsfoot

Perhaps the most interesting of the group is coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara). So named for its rounded leaves that are said to look like the foot of a colt, the flowers are not as similar to dandelions as some of the others, but they grow close to the ground in multi-stemmed, 4 to 10-inch clumps with the leaves emerging after the flowers are done. The plant grows from rhizomes as opposed to taproots.

It is primarily the leaves that are of interest to foragers and herbalists. They can be rolled, dried and smoked as a treatment for lung inflammation, or used to make a soothing drink. The flowers can be tossed in a salad or mixed with honey. Coltsfoot has the taste of licorice or anise.

The downside is that some coltsfoot constituents are carcinogenic, and overuse of the plant can damage the liver. If you are ever desperate for salt, however, you can burn the leaves and use the heavy part of the residue as a substitute. Some people like it very much.