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Have you visualize dandelions touted as an of the essence first food for bee in leap ? Or do you just regard them as vexing smoke ? We fact - check the claims and — no surprise — the accuracy lands squarely in - between , point they are neither a vital bee superfood nor the toxicant - worthy beast that either camp claims .
Do you have a personal horticulture ethos ? Here ’s why “ gardening organically ” is punishing to delineate but helpful for steering your own gardening decisions .
Bee collecting nectar on a dandelion
Dandelions: Garden Weed or Bee Food or Both?
It ’s been 10 since dandelions were declared public foe number one in the lawn fear universe . I remember countless television ad as a tyke urging us to get free of these unsightly wildcat lest we become the disgrace of the neighborhood . And bylaws commence popping up to reinforce this .
Knowing how well - loved dandelions are by children it seems entirely possible that we ’ve been program to despise these flowering plants despite their pollyannaish , yellow , cushion - same flower .
If disliking dandelion bulge as a marketing gambit to betray herbicides , it ’s a clever one . These non - aboriginal plant are find over immense swaths of North America and are here to stay .
Bee collecting pollen on common dandelion
So are dandelion actually an environmental trouble ? Or do they have some time value ?
With all we know today about the pauperism forbiodiversity for sizeable eco - systems , it ’s the lawn itself — and everything we throw at it to keep it plush and unripe — that really deserve examination .
link up : Want Lots of Pollinators ? Grow a Diverse Selection of Plants
And , despite the energy to toxicant , dandelions have always had a fan club calling for a truce on the employment of unnecessary weedkiller .
If you spend time on Facebook or other social media , you ’ve believably also run across tricky memes undertake to change the reputation of dandelion from lowly weed to bee superfood , essentially turn the weed product message .
The most uncouth pro - dandelion claim I see saysyou must not get rid of blowball because they are the first ( and only ) food available for bee emerge in previous winter and early fountain . And without them , the bees are fate . And if they ’re destine , we ’re condemn .
But is this true ?
We fact - checked the claims and — no surprisal — the truth shore squarely in - between , show dandelions are neither a vital bee superfood nor the poisonous substance - worthy brute that either cantonment claims .
I ’ve explain it in theanswers to common dandelion questions(below ) .
Flowering herbaceous perennial flora
From the Gallic “ dent de king of beasts ” = tooth of the Panthera leo .
touch on : Why No Mow May Does n’t Cut It — And What you may Do Instead
Dandelions: Common Questions Answered
1Are dandelions native to North America?
No .
dandelion were insert to Canada , the United States , Australia , and other countries from Europe hundreds of years ago for enjoyment as a medicative herb .
2Are dandelions invasive?
The word ‘ invasive ’ is used for plants that irreversibly modify our eco - system , induce environmental or economic damage .
Aggressiveplants distribute quickly but are not detrimental to the environment or economy .
The word used for blowball isnuisance . They are recurrent and spread by seed — and they ’re here to stay — but they do not rate as aggressive or invasive .
You will , of course , see them listed as ‘ encroaching ’ and , in a farm context , like any unwanted plant , it takes prison term and money to remove them .
tie in : plant life sagely : Choosing Non - Invasive Options for Your Garden
3Are dandelions weeds?
Yes , but .
The definition of a gage is all about location .
Weed ( noun )
By this definition , a dandelion is a weed if you did not designedly plant it , is undesirable , and competes with your other works or forage lawn .
In another location it ’s just anon - aboriginal wild plantandintroduced metal money .
4Are dandelions the first food available for bees in spring?
Dandelions are not the solitary , first food for bee . If they were , we ’d be in problem .
First food beginning will vary depending on what ’s growing in any given area but it would be highly unusual to only have blowball in prime and nothing else . That would be one desolate landscape painting !
The most over - seem early food sources for bee are early pollinating tree , providing masses and masses of pollen and ambrosia — much more than dandelions — and often weeks earlier . Anyone with seasonal pollen allergy can attest to that .
It ’s amazing to see the loudness of bee chat tree blossoms on a sunny natural spring afternoon . We see this with maple , elmwood , poplars , cherry , and our giant , old pussy willow tree .
Early spring - flowering herbaceous plants are also bee magnets .
Related:20 Spring Bulbs For Pollinators
5Do dandelions provide nectar or pollen for bees?
Yes , but .
Here in Canada and the United States we have both native and non - native bees ( dearest bee ) . Most work tend to focus exclusively on honey bee because they are important pollinator in agriculture . But the behavior of honey bee are not representative of bees in general and it ’s the aboriginal bees that get overlooked both in research and garden pop cultivation .
There are study see back over 50 year — none more recent that we could notice — record that dear bees fed nothing but dandelion pollen do not do very well . As far as I know , there are no issues with the ambrosia : it ’s the pollen that is lower quality . That ’s why it is sometimes called “ dust food ” or “ snacks ” for bees . But again , that ’s just beloved bees . If other pollinators were studied perhaps we ’d see it is more nutritious for them . Or not .
6Should I plant dandelions for bees?
There are so many other bee - friendly plant choice , and the dandelion do not need our help with propagation .
The Xerces Society , which works to keep up invertebrates including bees and butterflies , put out a book a few years ago called100 flora to Feed the Bees . Did blowball make the Top 100 ? No ! They are n’t even mentioned in the Good Book . So there are at least one hundred good options to turn over .
But does it hurt to have dandelions ? Not that we know of , other than it ’s taking up infinite a better choice could occupy . And , their presence may encourage more spraying — something we do not require .
7Are dandelions edible? Do they have any nutritional value?
Yes and yes .
People eat every part of the blowball — from root to flower and everything in between — but always be sure they are free of any herbicides or other atomizer .
Dandelion has a bitter flavor that some hoi polloi enjoy . Young , cranky plants are less bitter than ripe I .
Foods made from dandelions admit :
blowball leaves bring home the bacon Vitamin A , K , and Ca , iron , magnesium , and more .
1 cup ( 55 grams ) , peeled blowball viridity
And smaller amounts of various other vitamin and minerals .
8How do dandelions reproduce?
blowball flowers turn to seed . The seeds are dispersed by the idle words and may germinate wherever they land .
dandelion , specificallyTaraxacum officinale — not all dandelion metal money — are among a small pct of works that can reproduce asexually without fertilisation ( “ apomixis ” ) so no pollenation is demand . This means the plant you get from blowball seed are a knockoff of a single parent plant , not a transmissible combination of two parent plant .
So why do dandelions bother to produce pollen if it ’s not needed for their reproduction ? Pollen was needed long ago in its evolutionary history and evolutionary habits go hard .
When do dandelions germinate ?
blowball seed germinate when soil temperature attain 10 - 25 ° C ( 50 - 75 ° fluorine ) . sprouting takes 2 to 3 weeks . Flowers appear between 50 and 110 days after seed .
9How can I remove dandelions?
Due to the thick , thick taproot , to completely polish off a blowball you need to dig it up , get every last part of the radical out of the soil . A weed forkcan do a middling good line of work of this . But , if the root give out off in the ground , it will uprise back .
Mowing dandelion will temporarily halt flowering but the taproot lives on and the stem , foliage , and flowers will originate back .
This showshow I have used a steam machine for weedswith some success .
Related : How to withdraw Weeds with a Steam Machine ( Video & Photos )
So , to add together it up , dandelions are not an substantive bee superfood but bee do expend them . With better food sources useable , life will not end if you bump off yours . The best choice is to grow a divers selection of aboriginal flora and plants adapted to your region that support aboriginal bees and other wildlife .
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