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The dandelion is perhaps the most
popular, and best known of
all weeds. It certainly has a beautiful flower. Is there a
mother who has never gushed over a bouquet dandelions? If it were
more difficult to grow, gardeners would pay a high price for it.
Some people do cultivate dandelions, the young greens are eaten in
salads. For many years I planted them in my yard because they
were a favorite of the desert
turtles.
The leaves are the bane of lawn
purists. If allowed
to grow freely (as I have done) dandelions may grow rather bushy set of
leaves, and flower stems two feet tall. However, when subjected
to the lawn mower, the leaves will spread a rosette flat on the ground,
and send up flower stems which are successively shorter until the
flower head has no stem at all.
At night, after the flowers are
pollinated the flower head
closes up while the fruit matures. When the fruit has matured,
the head opens again, revealing the child's delight, a "white headed
dandelion.
Each flower produces one fruit.
When a breeze (or
breath of a child) catches the parachute the fruit separates from the
plant and drifts away on the wind.
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