Dandelions for wildlife

Dandelions provide for many different bee species, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, their larvae, beetles and birds. They tell you the time, were used to make an old drink from medieval times, dandelion and burdock. a dark fizzy drink and now being used to make some Continental tyres!  What more could you want from a flower?! The value to pollinators from native British weed species, including dandelions, has now been published by researchers 2016. They found that such weed species were found in the top 5 for nectar and in the top 10 for pollen rewards. Like all living creatures though, they will need a variety of different food resources from different species for all their nutritional requirements. This is just one that is handy in the early part of the year when many other flowers are not flowering at all.

There it is, the scourge of many a gardener who dreams of a green ‘grass-only’ lawn. In spring we are bombarded with TV adverts showing off the latest weed killers using the dandelion as their example of a troublesome foe that has to be exterminated. Then garden centres stuffed with weed killer products. The dandelion clock, the source of the dreaded pesky, troublesome weed, the dandelion, (Taraxacum officinale), from the French ‘dent de lion’ or lion’s tooth. This article is not to spout about how it used to be considered a valuable culinary and medicinal herb, its rich source of vitamins A, B, complex C and even the sunshine vitamin D. Nor is it about its iron, potassium and zinc mineral content. Not even about how people use its blanched leaves to add a different flavour to salads and sandwiches, no. What about its drinking qualities, when it’s used as a tea or drunk as a coffee substitute. No. Nor is it about how its flowers are used to make certain wines. No, this article is not about any of this at all!!

Because, we as a species living in the western world may have found substitutes for those properties mentioned, there are other living species that can and still do make full use of our ‘annoying lawn weed’. Enough words, let me introduce some of the wildlife that uses dandelions as shown in the film.

Bumblebee queens and dandelions.

Dandelion is an early spring flower just when many insects, such as bumblebee queens, need all the help they can get. This food resource can be vital to them as they try to establish a colony, at a time when they are vulnerable.

 

Butterflies

Many spring flying butterflies avail themselves on the bright yellow flower heads drinking nectar.

 

 

 

I was speaking to a friend of mine who regularly mows her lawn and uses weedkiller for the lawn weeds…..and we eventually got around to talking wildlife….. “Do you like butterflies?”, I asked. “Of course,” she said rather indignantly! ” But I must say, there seems to be fewer of them around these days”. “Do you like bumblebees?” ” Yes, its a nice summer sound as they fly past” ..” and you like goldfinches?”, “Yes, I feed them bird seeds in the back garden”.

 

 

House sparrow and dandelion aphids

Besides goldfinches, house sparrows, bullfinches and linnets that eat the dandelion seed. I watched last year as a few house sparrows were pecking at the base of a dandelion stalk. This aroused my attention as the dandelion was still in flower and no seed heads were present. I suspect they were pecking at aphids and the dandelion does in fact have its own aphid, Aphis taraxacicola. 

Hoverfly adults feeling upon a dandelion as the peacock butterfly leaves. Their larvae are avid predators of aphids and are useful allies in the war against garden pests.

 

 

Moth caterpillars feast

Then there are moths and moth caterpillars that use dandelions as their food plant, the caterpillars, in turn, are food for some birds.

 

Tyres

Now dandelions are being used to make vehicle tyres! Yes, I kid you not. Apparently, the Russain dandelion produces a liquid similar to the rubber tree and Continental tyres are research its properties and have indeed made tyres from dandelions.

A mixture of my own photographs and some I requested… with a special thanks to Roy and Marie who have some fabulous wildlife photographs at their site……  http://www.moorhen.me.uk/index.htm

In process of being updated…..

For more information about :

Food for pollinators: Quantifying the nectar and pollen resources or urban flower meadows

Read more articles about bumblebees.

Read more articles about the bumblebee nest box

For more information and to help save bumblebees join the Bumblebee Conservation Trust at Stirling University

Garden birds……….http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw

Interested in Citizen Science and pollinators? The Buzz Club