On April 4 I wrote in my diary that I saw my first coltsfoot flowers. A few days later I saw the dandelion, which is a close look alike. With the summer-like temperatures we experienced last week, many other flowers began to appear.

The coltsfoot flower grows in moist areas and is usually seen growing in ditches along our roadsides. This is an introduced plant, and the name comes from the shape of its leaf, which is shaped as a colt’s foot.

There are 25 species of dandelions that grow world-wide. In Eastern North America, we have 11 species of dandelions, of which seven are native and four were imported from Europe. One of these introduced species is the common dandelion that grows in our lawns.

Dandelions bloom throughout the summer and continue into the fall. Although the flower appears as one large bloom, it is made of many small flowers all pressed into one. The French named the plant “dents-de-lion,” meaning “tooth of the lion,” referring to the tooth-edged leaves. The number of incisions on the leaves is indicative of the amount of sunlight the plant receives. If the plant grows in full sunlight, the leaves will be deeply toothed.

Dandelions are members of the large compost family. Its scientific name is taraxacum officinale. Taraxos comes from the Greek for disorder and akos stands for remedy. In Arabic and Persian, the plant means bitter herb. The species name officinale means that it was sold in the marketplace. “Tramp with the golden head” — as the dandelion is sometimes called — is descriptive of the growth pattern of the plant.

Due to the dandelion containing high amounts of vitamins A and C, it is used as a general antidote and for ailments such as rheumatism.

Dandelions are sometimes grown to be sold. I have read where chefs have developed methods of growing blanched dandelion leaves. The leaves are grown in dark places, where only a little chlorophyll develops, with the result of more tender and sweeter greens.

There are many sayings connected with the dandelion. One old mountain superstition is that if you drink a cup of dandelion tea every morning and evening, you’ll never have rheumatism. The Dutch have a saying that if you eat a dandelion salad on Mondays and Thursdays, you will always remain healthy. Eating dandelions was said to be an old herbal remedy for impetigo and other aliments.

The yellow or orange-gold blossoms were used to make a dandelion wine. The leaves are gathered in early spring when they are the sweetest and can be eaten raw in salads or served with a bacon dressing. As warmer weather settles in, the leaves become tougher, giving support to the upcoming flower stalk that springs from the center; however, the first frost will revive the springtime sweetness. When we go to farmer’s market in the spring, I always look for the vendors selling dandelion greens.

The dandelion plant has a deep tap root, with leaves so close to the ground they escape a lawnmower. This is one reason why the plant is so persistent in our yards. To eliminate the plant, one must either dig out the big tap root or use chemicals.

Neither system works for very long because of the tremendous number of seeds the plant produces and the seed’s capability of traveling long distances on the wind.

As children I’m sure we all picked dandelion seed heads and then tried to blow all the seeds off with one breath. Each seed has its own parachute (white hairs on a short stalk), and on a windy day, the seed can travel several miles through the air. One day I sat down and counted the seeds in one head, ending with a total of 243 mature seeds. Since there were many seeds that had not fully developed, I deducted that a seed head contains well over 250 seeds.

I read that one dandelion flower is 300 dandelion flowers or florets. One dandelion plant can produce many flower heads at a time and in rapid succession. Green bracts folded up around the unopened flower head provide protection. These same bracts curl down when the flower emerges but are ready to close around the flower on either a rainy or cloudy day and at night.

Although many insects visit dandelions to gather pollen, only one in 10,000 dandelions are cross pollinated. When a dandelion flower head blossoms, the individual florets mature in circular rows, starting at the outer rim. First pollen is produced from the anthers, which are fused together in a tube-like formation around the stigma. Then the stigma pushes up through the pollen, carrying the pollen grains along.

Rather than forming because of pollination, a dandelion’s seeds usually form from a part of the parent plant. Dandelions are one of the few plants in which seeds can form without pollination occurring, meaning that many dandelions are clones of their parent plants.

In the language of flowers, the dandelion is “Faithful To You” and is considered a symbol of time and love. This has been proven time and time again as a small child offers a bouquet of dandelions and violets to his or her mom.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.