THE STIGMA OF WEEDS: The forgotten uses of common weeds and wild flowe

Weeds, an entirely subjective name for a plant that is growing in an unwanted place, we’ve all seen them, we’ve all cursed at them and have spent many hours laboriously fighting their insidious abilities. Many people have come to hate “weeds” because they choke out other plants, sap nutrients from the soil, or just plain old look ugly as hell in your prodigious flower garden. From a botanical point of view, however, weeds are just plants like any other. In many cases, weeds can offer you a free and easy, healthy, nutrient rich edible or provide a medicinal purpose long forgotten by common practice. Perhaps one of the most well known weeds that has been advertised in endless amounts of herbicidal commercials and rightfully so, is the beloved Dandelion.

WHATS SO BAD ABOUT THE DANDELION?

Dandelions don’t give a shit about you or your lawn or any other spec of temperate soil its seeds can land on. We all know the tell tale trademark of a dandelion, its beautiful buttery colored flower and iconic globe of feathered seeds that many of us, children and adults, enjoy blowing into the wind. This is exactly what makes it king of the weeds, after-all its genus, Taraxacum, means lions tooth (it’s the shape of the leaves.) The way the dandelion seeds is what makes it so pestilent, its seeds go wherever the wind takes it and it doesn’t take much of a breeze at all, which has ensured its survivability for the past 30 million years. Seed production normally occurs without pollination which makes it an even more survivable plant and factoring in the amount of seeds produced are from 54 to 172 seeds per head and a single plant can produce an astounding number of more than 2000 seeds.

Grab your guns people, I recommend high caliber rounds and grenades for maximum dandelion casualties, tanks if you got em. Dandelions are usually the first flower of spring followed by a second autumn bloom, so as you can imagine, they can populate any area of land that isn’t being used rather quickly if left unchecked. Certainly doesn’t take long for these plants to grow either; dandelions typically begin to blossom at about 2-3 months old or at approximately 1/8th of an inch big. Seeds from springs bloom can mature well in time to bloom in autumn and go dormant through the winter to blossom again in spring, those evil bastards, get your torches and pitch forks everybody and prepare for the ensuing witch-hunt.

Dandelion leaf with lion teeth characteristics.

Can you eat it? Yep, the entire plant, it’s actually very nutritious.

Virtually every part of this plant is edible, its flowers, leaves and roots all have uses both medicinally and nutritionally. Firstly I would like to talk about its nutritional value and a few edible uses for each part of this greedy and selfish plant.

The leaves and flowers.

What you probably didn’t know about the flower of the dandelion is that you can make a rich and flavorful wine from them which is said to have great benefits for the kidneys, stomach, and liver. You can also make cookies from the flowers, brew a medicinal tea or throw them in a salad for extra color and in addition to the flowers you can add some leaves to the meal for an extra hearty flavor packed with more nutrients than some of its vegetable counterparts. Here is a website for how to make a variety of dandelion edibles and concoctions. Medicinal uses big pharma doesn’t want you to know. Interestingly, about the Dandelions, is that the seeds were brought to America on the mayflower for its wide-use application of its medicinal properties (didn’t exactly have capsule medicine back then.) Dandelions have been used medicinally since the dawn of civilization….. its stems and roots produce a white latex substance when cut or damaged that doubles as an anti-bacterial agent and a wart remover, great for if you are lost in the wilderness and have no disinfectant. Roots of the dandelion are a caffeine free substitute for coffee or tea, which has a conglomerate of internal health benefits. It can be used for conditions of the gall bladder such as gallstones, kidney and urinary disorders, jaundice, cirrhosis, hypoglycemia, dyspepsia with constipation, edema associated with high blood pressure and heart weakness, arthritis and skin conditions such as gout, eczema and acne. As a tea, Dandelion strengthens the kidneys. An infusion of the root encourages the steady elimination of toxins from the body. Dandelion is a powerful diuretic but does not deplete the body of potassium. I’m not saying this plant will cure you of whatever it is you have, but if you are tired of taking pills with god-knows-what side effects and looking to try something more holistically, dandelion is the way to go. Does dandelion have an industrial use? Sure does, rubber can be made from its milky latex secretion and is already being applied to practical use. Check out this link to read more about it.