Douglas Bunger: Dandelions

Douglas Bunger http://dbunger.tripod.com bunger@home.com

Doug Ponders Dandelions

********************
Please visit my updated page at http://www.dougbunger.com.
********************

With a title like that you'd expect some happy poem of spring love and eternal bliss.
Wrong.
What is this almost psychotic obsession middle class Americans have with dandelions? If you stop and think about it, there is an entire industry devoted to the erratication of the dandelion from the lawns of suburbia.
Why?
Americans spend large amounts of time, effort, and money to rid their yards of these villainous plants.
To what end?
Go to the hardware store: poisons, fertilizer spreaders, devices that attach to the garden hose to spray toxic liquids, there is even a tool specifically designed to destroy the roots of these plants. Has mankind made any headway in this war of herbicidal proportion?
No.
To make matters worse, the logic behind all these endeavors is that the dandelion is unsightly. These little yellow flowers offend us, so we kill them, and plant daffodils.

Consider the dandelion. These plants have a root system that extend halfway to Hell, they propagate by seeds that are carried without reason by the wind, and they have no natural enemies. None, that is, other than man.
The only way to defeat this plant is with chemicals. An all out chemical warfare attack against these plants (Didn't Sadam Hussain use this same tactic against the Kurds) can be temporarily successful. I say temporarily, because if your neighbor does not kill all of his dandelions, the next good wind will place his seeds in your yard.
And so it must all start again.

Oh, but this is but the tip of the proverbial tap root.
You see, I have been enlightened! I now realize the errors of my ways.
I have come to learn that the leaves of the dandelion are edible, and make a good salad. It is also said that the flowers can be made into wine. The stem can be dried and ground to made a tea. The deep root prevents erosion, the plants spread quickly, survive all conditions, and return year after year.
And what of these yellow flowers? What mother's heart is not warmed by the presentation of a bouquet of dandelions by a small child?

Let the dandelions grow, say I!
At least until the city evicts me for health violations.
After all, they are weeds.