The Dandelion

No More Successful Plant and None More Wonderful.

Perhaps none of our plants is more common or more familiar than the dandelion, and certainly none is more wonderful. First of all it is not a native, but was introduced from Europe, whence have come many of our worst weeds, fitted by centuries of struggle in cultivated fields to overcome the native plants of a continent where cultivation had previously been practically unknown and where natives had had no opportunity of adapting themselves to the conditions of civilized agriculture.

One of the dandelion's strongest points is the ability to obtain nourishment under strong competition and in unfavorable situations. A deep, strong, perennial taproot draws all available nourishment and moisture from surface and subsoil, stores nourishment during the winter and enables the plant to start far and away ahead of most of its competitors. This same taproot is exceedingly bitter which very likely protects it from destruction by moles and other animals. At least I do not remember having seen a root that had been disturbed by animals of any kind.

But only a small portion of its food comes from the oil. Air and sunshine are just as necessary, for the air is food and the sunshine is digestion for our vegetable neighbors. Note the shape of the leaves. Narrow at the base and widening at the outer end. They form a dense rosette that not only gets for the dandelion all the air and sunshine coming its way, but smothers all but the most sturdy competitors. Here lies the secret of the dandelion's presence in lawns and walks and open waste places. In lawns the grass is kept low so that it cannot overtop and shade the dandelion, while its own leaves lie so low and close that they are little hurt by the mower and can smother the grass underneath. - Harper's Magazine.