Are You Eating the Right Foraged Herb?
Dandelions are an edible forage herb, renowned as a herbal tonic for liver and blood cleansing. Its a bitter herb which we eat the leaves and roots of.
This is how it grows. You’ll see its quite a luxurious and upright leafy grower. There are typically lots of leaves growing from a clumping base.
Dandelion plant and flower
The picture below shows a flatweed plant, on the left and a dandelion flower spike with dandelion leaves on the right.
The flatweed on the left is a smaller flatter plant.
Dandelion and flatweed plants. The dandelion is on the right.
See how the flatweed has a flower with several stems. The dandelion has one stem per flower and is significantly thicker.
Here’s a closer shot below. Flatweed to the left, dandelion to the right.
Dandelion seed head to the right, flatweed to the left
Now here’s a close up of the leaves. The flatweed is to the left, dandelion to the right.
Flatweed has a much hairier and smaller leaf.
Closeup of leaves
Finally, the joy or a dandelion is the blowing of the seed head. This one was about the size of a dinner plate!
I remember as a child blowing and saying ‘One o’clock, two o’clock..thirteen o’clock!’
Super sized dandelion seed head