Dandelion Taraxacum officinale

Dandelion is a world traveller, believed to have originated in Asia. A common wild flower, some (definitely not me) may say a weed, it can be found almost everywhere humans live.

It’s name, Dandelion, is thought to refer to the leaf edge, in French, “dent de lion”, the tooth of a lion. Similarly, in Welsh it is called dant y llew, lion’s tooth. One of the many, poetic, names the Chinese call it is ‘yellow-flowered earth-nail’*.

There is ‘reference to its medicinal use in the works of the Arabic physicians of the 10th and 11th centuries and in the early Welsh medical texts, produced by the Physicians of Myddfai, of the 13th century’**. 

Taraxacum is derived from a very ancient name traceable through Latin and Arabic to Persian talkh chakok, meaning bitter herb. Officinale means sold in shops, and is applied to plants with medicinal properties.

The whole plant embodies the passage of time, from the flowers, which open and close daily with the sun, to the lunar, air borne, seed heads. It offers medicine, culinary nourishment and beauty.  It flowers for much of the year, constantly regenerating when it is either mown or dug up. It is perennial and self-fertilising.

There are thought to be over 250 species within Taraxacum officinale in the British Isles, all of which are safe medicinal plants. Dandelion is high in minerals, especially Potassium, and vitamins A, B, C and D. In Spring the fresh young leaves can be eaten raw or infused in cold or hot water and enjoyed as a drink. It provides a wonderful digestive cleanser after winter, detoxifying the blood and lymph, and increasing elimination of the digestive and urinary systems, especially the liver and kidneys. It is the bitterness in Dandelion leaves that makes them wonderful aids for the digestive system. The common French nick-name, ‘piss-en-lit’, or piss the bed, reveals its diuretic properties, where it both clears and strengthens the urinary system. 

Dandelion is an amazing, glorious ally, which lights up the ground I gently walk on.

* Hedgerow medicine, Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal

** The Sensory Herbal Handbook, The Seed Sistas