Widespread throughout almost the entire territory of our country and so often irritating gardeners, field dandelion is a characteristic representative of the domestic flora.
This plant will tell about this plant, its area of growth, properties and application.
Field Dandelion: Description
Who is unfamiliar with the herbaceous perennial, flower-glittering life-affirming golden stars of flowers, forest glades, roadside curbs and even favorite beds of gardeners from early spring to the end of the summer season? The enviable vitality of the plant allows it to germinate on any soil, including on rocky and foothill meager soils, in forest and steppe zones. Field dandelion easily adapts to any environmental conditions and successfully survives even on pastures, undergoing trampling. It is not able to drown out or displace other plants.
And the dandelion has a lot of names, it is awarded with various epithets - medicinal, pharmacy, ordinary, field. This herbaceous brave has even more popular names - a void, a puff, a milkman, a bald patch, a milker, a bedcloth, an euphorbia, a cow flower, a milky color, etc. All of them surprisingly accurately convey the qualities and characteristics of the plant.
The field dandelion (aster family) is equipped with a large root, stem and branched, sometimes extending deep into the ground up to 0.3-0.5 m.The basal rosette combines elongated, plow-like cirrus-dissected leaves, the size of which depends on the habitat. On dry soils and sunshine, they are no longer than 15-20 cm, and in moist ditches, near the banks of rivers, in the shade and under bushes, leaves grow up to 40-60 cm. Nature is wise, it conceived an amazing device, it would seem, of a simple leaf: a longitudinal groove is laid in its center, collecting dew and rain moisture, and then feeding it to the root.
Characteristics of Dandelion Field
Peduncle, hollow stem, ending with a basket of tubular sunny yellow flowers, each of which has five narrow reed petals. Inflorescences-baskets are real barometers that respond to changing weather, as well as changing day and night.
Everyone noticed that in the evening and before the rain, dandelions close, keeping pollen from getting wet, and when the sun rises, they open again. The fruits of the dandelion are dry achenes, long with a thin shaft attached to the parachutes-fluffs, easily tolerated by the lightest blowing of the wind. Botanists noticed that achenes never turn over, being exactly from below, and, landing, they are ready for sowing. Field dandelion sprouts at the lowest positive temperatures. Seedlings and shoots from the growth buds of the root appear from April and throughout the summer period. The fertility of the plant is impressive - one plant forms up to 7 thousand seeds per season.
Useful properties of the plant
All parts of dandelion contain milky juice, which is extremely bitter in taste. It is this circumstance - the presence of bitterness - that makes the plant medicinal and the main purpose of active bitter substances is an effect that improves appetite, digestion, and increased secretion of gastric juice. The main share of nutrients is concentrated in the root of the plant.
Field dandelion contains compounds that normalize metabolic processes in the body, increase blood hemoglobin, neutralize the effects of harmful cholesterol on blood vessels and contribute to a significant improvement in the human psychophysical state. Dandelion preparations also have other properties: antiviral, antispasmodic, laxative, sedative, diaphoretic, anthelmintic, etc.
Indications for use of dandelion preparations
The beneficial properties of dandelion have long been used in the complex treatment of a variety of diseases.
And today, drugs manufactured on the basis of this perennial are used in the absence of appetite, colitis, gastrointestinal disorders, constipation, diseases of the biliary tract and liver, pancreas, anemia, atherosclerosis, pulmonary and skin problems, inflamed wounds, diabetes, arthritis, gout and etc. Such an extensive field of application of drugs, the basis of which became a dandelion field medicinal, is possible due to an impressive list of substances and compounds concentrated in the roots of the plant.
The use of dandelion in everyday life
Inflorescences collected in the spring, in Russia have long been used in cooking. From dandelion, today they make jam reminiscent of fresh honey. The French and English pickle buds that successfully act as a complete replacement for capers in salads and soups. Use in salads and fresh leaves that have been cooked. There is also dandelion honey - a thick viscous product of excellent golden color with a bright piquant smell and the same slightly harsh taste. Due to the significant amount of inulin in the roots of dandelion, a surrogate coffee drink is prepared from them.
