# What's wrong with dandelions? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964 "2005-05-01T17:54:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/21 "2005-05-02T00:49:01Z")
I used to be allergic to them. They’d make me sneeze and my eyes would puff up. The whites of my eyes, I mean. Tres ugly. I just find them annoyingly common. And I’m not crazy about a vivid yellow colour. We got a letter (I hope all our neighbours did too) about keeping the dandelions out of our yards/gardens. So I sprayed them with vinegar/soap and that seems to have depressed them somewhat. I haven’t tried a dandelion green salad, but I might now. At least they’d be useful then. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/22 "2005-05-02T01:31:04Z")
When my husband first met my younger brother, he demonstrated holding a (fuzzy white) dandelion with the stem between his teeth - the fuzzy head sticking out one side of his mouth, the broken stem out the other side. He told my brother, “I bet you can’t hold a dandelion that way.” My brother put the dandelion stem between his teeth just so, and my husband grabbed the stem end and pulled the fuzzy part through my brother’s mouth. Brother was spitting dandelion fuzz for a good twenty minutes. I love dandelions because they always make me think of that now. I am a good neighbor and I keep them out of the front yard, and mostly out of the backyard, too, but there’s a little patch of earth on the hillside going down to the creek behind my house, and I let the dandelions go crazy there. When people ask me why, I tell them it’s for erosion control. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/23 "2005-05-02T03:09:49Z")
Well, I like dandelions. I still pick them and make wishes. I, too, am baffled by the Lawn Fascists. I live in an apartment and don’t have a lawn, but if I ever do, I’ma grow wildflowers or maybe vegetables. Lawns are boring, useless, and a total waste of resources. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/24 "2005-05-02T03:37:12Z")
We used to play a game with them where you’d sing, “Mama had a baby and it’s head popped off!” and then you’d “pop” off the head. I don’t know where it came from, though. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/25 "2005-05-02T10:44:44Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > Everything, but the stem, is edible. And if you split the stem lengthwise at each end, you can make a pretty good whistle. Even the name is cool - a corruption of the French _dents des lions_, or lion’s teeth, a reference to the serrated leaves. Dandelions: is there anything they can’t do? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/26 "2005-05-02T11:47:21Z")
[Dandelion info](http://www.drwnet.com/wings/dandrev.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Witch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Witch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Witch)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/27 "2005-05-02T12:42:44Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > We used to play a game with them where you’d sing, “Mama had a baby and it’s head popped off!” and then you’d “pop” off the head. I don’t know where it came from, though. We did the same thing! A bit macabre maybe, but kept us busy for at least ten minutes. ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/28 "2005-05-02T13:35:46Z")
Every afternoon for the past two weeks, my three-year-old has run into the kitchen to give me a fistful of slightly crumpled dandelions that he picked in the backyard. It’s my daily bouquet. I like ‘em. They go in a little water glass on the window sill, until he brings me fresh ones the next day. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/29 "2005-05-02T23:22:20Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > Everything, but the stem, is edible. When I was about 5, my older brother once convinced me to take the stem of a dandelion and suck out the wonderful, sweet juice that was inside. So cruel. Of course, about 3 years later I played the same trick on my younger brother. Ah yes, the joy of three boys in one house. My poor, poor mother. ---
**Author:** ![Cockatiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cockatiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cockatiel)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/30 "2005-05-03T03:08:34Z")
I also love dandelions. Every year when the yellow spots start popping up in the grass I say “Yay dandelions!” Everyone always looks at me with a face that says “You like weeds? What is wrong with you?” They’re pretty, ok? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/31 "2005-05-06T10:11:29Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > 😕 Everything is wrong when you have to eat their roots from beneath (or push up the daisies) :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/32 "2005-05-06T12:17:55Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > The roots, I’ve been told, can be browned up in a pan and then used for coffee ( if you were really desperate.) Dandelion coffee is (IMO) really good; it’s just a pain to prepare. You have to gather a huge number of the largest roots you can find, then scrub them, chop them roughly and roast in a medium oven until they go mid-brown, then allow them to cool, crush/chop them into smaller pieces and roast again until they are dark brown, then use as regular coffee grounds. The flavour is ‘rounder’ than ordinary coffee and there’s a sort of smooth mouthfeel, but I consider the flavour to be really excellent - it’s not _exactly_ like proper coffee (in fact it can seem to have licorice overtones), but it’s a very drinkable beverage. Makes you wee a lot though. ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/33 "2005-05-06T12:46:56Z")
Me hates the evil dandelionses. Little yellow & white globes of imperfection in my otherwise perfect lawn. (Pay no attention to the bare spots please.) My precioussss Scott’s lawnspreader will get rid of the evil dandelionses. I like my flowers in the garden where they belong, not in my yard. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/34 "2005-05-06T14:30:54Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > If you care how your lawn looks—or even if you don’t care, but you don’t want the neighbors to be pissed off that your yard is a jungle—dandelions make things harder. You can mow the lawn and, before the grass itself gets tall enough to need mowing again, there are dandelion stems sticking up above the grass all over. That’s me. I’m a twenty-something in a neighborhood mostly full of retirees. And while I don’t care to mow the grass any more often than is necessary to keep the city off my back, my neighbors have literally nothing better to do with their time than mow three times a week. Shame and fear of geriatric reprisal is the only thing that keeps me attending to my yard. And it’s just a lot easier to keep it presentable if you kill the weeds. But one day, they’ll die. And young people will move in. And we’ll all collectively agree to let the yellow flowers run rampant. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964/35 "2005-05-06T14:44:37Z")
Every spring my son and I can be found trespassing on our neighborhood lawns, picking all the dandelion flowers we can find before the Evil Chemlawn Truck makes it’s yearly rounds. We make dandelion wine, but we also make fried dandelion flowers - just like fried mushrooms, but yummier and high in antioxidents! It’s the leaves that are diuretic, the roots shouldn’t really affect your urine output much. The nice thing about dandelion leaves as a diuretic is that they’re also a fabulous source of potassium, which replaces the potassium you pee out. They taste really bitter by about June, though. The young ones available now can simply be eaten raw in salads, but as they get older, they’re more palatable in tea. Flowers for eatin’, leaves for peein’, roots for drinkin’ (and also increasing liver metabolic rate, so don’t go too crazy iffen you’re on meds), stems for torturing siblings with - what more could we ask of the humble little dandelion? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-dandelions/301964.md?page=1)