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Common Dandelion – the Lion's Tooth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

Larry W. Mitich*
Affiliation:
Dep. Bot., Univ. Calif., Davis, CA 95616

Extract

From ancient times to the present, common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale Weber in Wiggers ♯3TAROF) has been considered one of the most delectable of garden vegetables. People have carried the seeds from place to place for cultivation since before written history (9). According to legend, Theseus ate a dandelion salad after killing the Minotaur. Romans ate the plant as did the Gauls and Celts when the Romans invaded the North (9). The Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain and the Normans of France continued to use the plant as food and as medicine to control scurvy and as a diuretic; it was planted in the medicinal gardens of monasteries (9).

Type
The Intriguing World of Weeds
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by the Weed Science Society of America 

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References

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