"Our love is like a dandelion, blown into uncharted territory by the wind". Speaking of dandelions, everyone seems to know, but it is such a familiar plant that many people "stupidly can't recognize". Today, we will "study" dandelions.
Fig.0: The inflorescence of a dandelion
The word "dandelion" has two meanings. The narrow interpretation refers only to the species with the Latin scientific name taraxacum mongolicum, Chinese the correct name is called dandelion, without prefix modifiers; in addition, dandelion can also refer to all species of the dandelion genus of the Asteraceae family, which has a total of more than 2,000 species, which is a very large family, and there are more than 70 species in China. The "dandelions" that appear below are basically in a broad category, and if they refer specifically to a species, they will be embellished with Latin names.
Fig. 1: Dandelion
In general, dandelions are perennial leaf-like herbs, which are characterized by two characteristics: First, the leaves are all basal leaves, that is, they grow directly from the roots and are densely "rosette-shaped". Second, the stem is "flower-leaf-shaped", 1 or more roots, upright hollow, no branches, no branches, no leaves, the upper part may be soft hairs or not, the only function is to hold the head-shaped inflorescence. Knowing these two points, you can eliminate many fake dandelions.
Figure 2
Figure 3
Simply take two chestnuts. The plant in Figure 2, the flowers at first glance look like dandelions, but, not to mention other identifying characteristics, just the branches on the stems of the flowers betray it----- which is not dandelion, but long-lobed bitter lettuce. Figure 3 is the fruit order of the peach leaf crow onion, which is a little similar to dandelion, but the flower stem has a diamond-shaped lanceolate stem leaf (although it is very inconspicuous, but it is also a leaf), and the dandelion will never have it.
Most of the flowers of Asteraceae are cephalic inflorescences (there are also some short spike-like inflorescences), which are characterized by "shortened inflorescence shafts and expanded into head-shaped or disc-shaped inflorescences, on which many sessile florets grow, often with a total of 1 to several layers of bracts below", and the flowers of dandelions are typical of the head-like inflorescences.
Figure 4
Dandelions belong to the subfamily Asteraceae, and the inflorescence consists entirely of tongue-like flowers with no tubular flowers. Each "petal" is a tongue-shaped flower with both stamens and pistils, both of which are sexually capable flowers. An inflorescence usually has dozens of flowers, sometimes more than 100 "flowers", the number of which is not a certain rule, basically depending on the mood; the flowers in Figure 1 are only dozens, and those in Figure 4 are much more prosperous, I am afraid it is more than 100. The very top of each tongue-shaped flower is "truncated" and has 5 teeth.
Figure 5
Fig. 6: White-rimmed dandelion
Turning the dandelion flowers over, you can see that there are dark stripes on the back of its outermost "tongue-like flowers", which is a common feature of most species of dandelion. The tongue-like flowers are followed by total bracts, which generally have several layers of total bracts, and the outermost total bracts are usually shorter. The subtle features of the total bracts are one of the important bases for identifying specific species of dandelions. The flowers in Figure 6 have dark green bands in the middle of the outermost total bracts, with a broad white membranous edge and a pink upper end, according to which it can be judged that this is not an ordinary dandelion/t. mongolicum, but a white-rimmed dandelion/t. platypecidum.
Fig. 6 White-flowered dandelion
Fig. 7 Hanging dandelion
Dandelions are mostly yellow flowers, but also white, red or fuchsia. Figure 6 is the white flower dandelion /t. albiflos, the flowers are usually white, a few are pale yellow, distributed in the northwest and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, usually not seen; The Korean dandelion /t. coreanum produced in the three eastern provinces and Hebei also has white tongue-like flowers. There is no dandelion with red and purple flowers in China, but there is a kind of hanging dandelion /t. nutans, the color of the flowers is a unique orange-yellow-brown color; it is also the only dandelion that droops after the flowers, and other species are dead to the end, or slightly curved and tilted, but never hanging their heads.
This chapter takes the common dandelion/t. mongolicum, which is widely distributed throughout the country, and according to the flora of China, it seems that there is only one kind in my onion province.
Figure VIII
Figure IX
Dandelion/t. Mongolicum leaves are inverted ovate lanceolate, inverted lanceolate, or oblong lanceolate, with the base narrowing into petioles, and the petioles and main veins are often reddish-purple. Its basic outline is relatively fixed, but the specific details are more varied. Generally, most of them are pinnate deep fissures, and there are many deep fissures that fall to pinnate deep fissures or large-headed pinnate deep fissures. The dandelion in Figure 8 is a typical inverted pinnate deep fissure, like a string of arrows; the ninth one belongs to the large head pinnate deep fissure, the crack is relatively flat, the degree of inversion is not obvious, and some are in between, and you don't know who it goes with, it may be arbitrary.
Figure 10
Figure XI
According to my observation, dandelion leaves in arid and barren environments are more pinnate and deeply lobed, and in fertile and warm environments, it is possible to be unbroken, with only wavy teeth on the edges. If the plant in Figure 10 has not already bloomed, I am afraid that many people will enter it into another book. What's more, on the same plant, it is possible to appear both uncracked and deeply lobed leaf types, which makes people confused, as shown in Figure 11. It is difficult to use words to simply summarize the unified characteristics of dandelion leaves, only by looking more and touching more, in practice to pinch its unique temperament---- can be understood and ineffable, which is the meaning of temperament taxonomy.
Will dandelions bear fruit? It must be that every angiosperm with normal reproductive ability will bear fruit, and those with only seeds and no fruits will be gymnosperms. What we usually call a dandelion seed is actually its fruit.
Fig. 12 Fruit order of dandelion
The fruits of Asteraceae are thin, unplopped fruits. There is no need to explain the definition of "thin fruit" in detail, observe the "sunflower seed" to deepen the perceptual understanding, the basic structure is that virtue, the melon seed shell is the outer fruit peel, and the sunflower kernel is the real seed. The most significant difference between dandelion fruit and "sunflower seed" is that it has a well-structured crown hair at the upper end, which can "send me to the clouds with the power of good wind" to achieve the purpose of opening branches and scattering leaves. With a gentle blow, light miniature parachutes float around, which are loved by children.
Fig. 13 Bitter lettuce
There are many Asteraceae plants similar to the dandelion fruit sequence and are easily misidentified. For example, the peach leaf shallot/scorzonera sinensis in Figure 2, the fruit sequence is as close to the perfect spherical shape as dandelion, and the structure of the crown hairs is similar, but the color is yellowish and slightly bulky. If you think of it as a dandelion, you will find that this thing can hardly blow, even if it blows off, it will not fly far, which is very disappointing. The fruit order of bitter lettuce is occasionally mistaken for a dandelion, which is simply a ball of white hair, even an umbrella-like structure, why give you a flight?
As early as the "Tang Materia Medica", there are relevant records about the consumption of dandelions, "dandelion grass leaves are like bitter lettuce, yellow flowers, broken white juice, everyone is eating", which can indicate that its wide popularity is "since ancient times"; the Ming Dynasty "Compendium of Materia Medica" included dandelions in the "vegetable department", called "stems, leaves, flowers, flocculents and like bitter lettuce, but small ears, young seedlings can be eaten". To this day, people still have a lot of dandelions and blue eyes, not to mention more than cabbage.
Figure XIV
Figure 15: Dandelion salad
Photo 16: Dandelion omelette
The young leaves of dandelion can be washed raw food, mixed with salad, or dipped in sauce to eat, can minimize the natural taste of dandelion, refreshing and refreshing, but the taste is slightly bitter, many people may not be able to adapt. You can also blanch in boiling water for 10 minutes, add oil and salt or other spices to the cold mix, which is a fixed routine for most wild vegetables. In addition, you can chop up to make fillings, stir-fry, omelettes, soups, etc., in short, there are various ways to eat, do not need to repeat, give full play to the imagination on the line. In addition to China, dandelions also have many fans in Europe and Japan, the Japanese use it to make tempura, the British will also make its flowers into flower pancakes, can be described as "mountains and rivers exotic, dandelions eat together."
Figure 17: Cultivated dandelions
In many places, dandelions are still wild vegetables that have fallen into the grass and have not been able to occupy a place in traditional farmland. This is largely dragged by the seeds, this thing is not easy to collect ah, a gust of wind to all drift away, the next year to plant? Despite this, there are still people who persistently cultivate dandelion varieties that are more suitable for consumption, and there are also artificial cultivations on a certain scale. For example, the quadruploid giant dandelion grows like spinach, the leaves are crisp and tender, the quality is excellent, and the rough goods blown in the wild are not the same.
"Mother-in-law" originated in the northeast, and is the result of the people of the northeast adapting their original Japanese vocabulary to their own situation.
Dandelion's Japanese vocabulary is "タンポポ", which is pronounced "tanpopo"; and in the early spring of the past in the northeast, it is often seen that the old woman is digging dandelion scenes, so the people of the northeast learn from the image of the old woman, and from the long main root of the dandelion to the "Ding" of the purple flower ding (dandelion has the alias of the ground ding, yellow flower diding), so the Japanese タンポポ reading method was added, deleted and transformed into "mother-in-law". Later, the word "mother-in-law" entered the customs from the northeast, spread to the whole country like the northeast cavity in the sketch, and was even included in the "Yunnan Bencao" far south of Caiyun.
This answer is really a cold knowledge to say.