Dandelion! A weed, herb, or flower.

You might be surprised to learn that the dandelion  is in the same plant group as the daisy and sunflower. There is much to learn about this medicinal herb  and child's toy.  "Children," according to William Stack who  wrote  about wildflowers in1909, "love to split the smooth, hollow flower stem with their tongues, and make long, spiral curls and ribbons. They also used them for blowing soap-bubbles, and for sipping water from a spring, or by blowing through them (to) produce funny noises."

Stack also comments on the dandelion's abundance, but reminds his readers that, "the solitary flowers are also a welcome sight in the spring."

Do you agree that this early splash of yellow dotting greening lawns is a welcome sight?

No? Well, you are not alone. Google "dandelion" and you will find that  dandelion extermination efforts ranks right up there with termites. But this is not a debate for friend or foe. It is a search, like all my blogs, to discover the dandelion as a curiosity of nature (albeit-weed to many).

As we discover  more about the dandelion, we will find that it is an oxymoron in the flower world. However, it is precisely this paradox that puts it in the category of "wildflower names that every child should know."

Yellow Toadflax: Beauty or the Beast?

Yellow Toadflax, or butter and eggs, part of the figwort or snapdragon family, is a plant with delicate orange lobes similar to a pair of lips, sitting on top of a yellow spur. It is not surprising that this profile earned it a generic name that means dragon mouth because like other flowers that are squeezed open their "mouth." Children also enjoy playing with these lips. Squeezing the side of the flower makes the mouth open and then snap shut. When the bumblebees pollinates the snapdragon, its ungratefully close over the pollinator who is dispositing his pollen

Because of this resemblance to the showy snapdragon, in the mid 1800's a Welsh Quaker, traveling with William Penn to Delaware started cultivating it in his garden. Ranstead, an upholster by trade, who probably had an appreciation for design, brought this Ranstead Weed, or yellow toadflax, to America, was unconcerned about it escaping the garden.

Some may recognize it by one of its many alias; wild snapdragon, Ramstead Weed, Flaxweed, Jacob’s Ladder, Brideweed, , Buttered Hayhocks, Calves' Snout, Churnstaff, Devil's Head, Devil's Ribbon, Doggies, Dragon-Bushes, Eggs and Bacon, Eggs and Collops, Flaxweed, Fluelli, Gallwort, Larkspur Lion's Mouth, Linaria vulgaris, Monkey Flower, Pattens and Clogs, Pedlar's Basket, Pennywort, Rabbits, Toadpipe, Yellow Rod.

The yellow toadflax with round shaped leaves grows in sandy soil: Whereas the spiked leaf yellow toadflax likes to creep extensively and spread its roots in a gravelly base. It is this ability to root so easily that has allowed it to spread to every state. It was introduced in California in the 1800’s. North Dakota has an all-out bulletin on a website that personifies this gorgeous weed. “If you find this weed, report it to your local weed officer. 
HELP STOP THE SPREAD” Along with its decorative yellow cornucopia, or “butter”, holding the orange, “egg” which first attracts the gardener to its beauty. Colorado and Idaho are among the many states listing it as a noxious weed. “The weeds contain a poisonous glucoside that may be harmful to livestock.” British Columbia uses biological agents to control it.