Legends of the lowly dandelion

You have seen them. People love them or hate them. People eat them. Yes, that is the dandelion. There is quite a bit of folklore connected to the dandelion.

Dandelions are related to sunflowers

Each “puffer” has between 150 -200 seeds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No one knows when the first person believed this: If you blow all of the white flying seeds off of a dandelion in one breath your wish will come true. There is also a belief that sending the seeds in the wind will carry your thoughts and dreams to those you love. In addition, some think blowing all the seeds in one breath means your love is true and is returned. Other stories include using the flowers as weather predicters, and the daily opening and closing of flowers indicating time of day.

Very strange dandelion

Today I noticed a couple of strange looking dandelions in our backyard. Instead of individual stems for each brilliant yellow bloom several had grown together in one solid super stem. You could sort of feel the cluster of stems in these large “stems”.

One big stem, multiple blooms

Another large stemmed one…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are plenty of “normal” dandelions nearby. Any botanists or agronomists or anybody who knows anything about these dandelions? I’ve never seen anything like this. Appreciate any comments or answers.