Mar 212019
Taraxacum vulgaria
The dandelion flowers all year round and has pretty yellow flowers and edible leaves. The young leaves are nice in a salad, but they have diuretic properties, which explains why the flower is called “pis-en-lit” in French. However it is not popular with gardeners as it produces prolific seeds and its deep tap roots are virtually impossible to dig up. When I was a child, my parents paid a bounty for every every dandelion-head we picked from our lawn. I can’t remember how much we were paid for each one, it may have been 6 old pence. While it supplemented our pocket-money nicely, it had little or no impact on the long-term dandelion population.