From the April 2007 Conservationist

Outdoor Discovery: Dandelions

By Anita Sanchez

Whether you love them or hate them, dandelions are, perhaps, the most familiar plant in the world. They're the one species of plant that just about anyone can identify at a glance, as familiar to humans as the dog. Dandelions are also, quite possibly, the most successful plants that exist, masters of survival all over the globe. Nowadays, they're the most unpopular plant in the neighborhood. But it wasn't always that way. It wasn't until the twentieth century that humans decided dandelions were a weed. Before the invention of lawns, the golden blossoms and lion-toothed leaves were more likely to be praised as a bounty of food, medicine, and magic. Gardeners used to weed out the grass to make room for the dandelions...

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Photo: Tom Lindsay