 |
While I am grubbing around on my hands and knees looking for the first tiny cultivated flowers of spring, I can generally rely on a burst of bright yellow
from a Dandelion growing in a crack in the paving, or taking over a gravel path. In its moment it is quite wonderful. February comes, the snowdrops are up and marvellous, the hellebores are up and marvellous, but this lovely dandelion is doing its best to outshine them. It raises my spirits and makes me feel redundant at the same time. This is the time of the year when the garden doesn't really require anything from me and this little flower is there to make sure I realise that! In 1997 the BSBI published their useful little handbook on Dandelions laying out the situation in the UK. In it the authors review Taraxacum officinale as I knew it, and present a view that fractures the broad species into 235 others. I have no doubt that it is well researched, well presented and accurate in its conclusions (I haven't read it, life is short). It is marvellous and very inconvenient. I am going to ignore it and live happily with Taraxacum officinale glowing brightly in my garden. I'm not right, I'm just obstinate. |
|
| 1979 In Reading. |
||
