More attention should be paid to the dandelion, believe the Herbarium Foundation and Taraxacum Netherlands. “The flower has always played an important role in the Netherlands, but few people notice it,” Karst Meijer, organizer of the National Dandelion Day, tells Editie NL. “The flower is somewhere in between and is often considered a weed.”
Useful
But the dandelion can be useful for all kinds of things. “Recently a report was published stating that the dandelion is number one for insects. Meadow birds can also benefit from it,” explains Meijer. “When chicks hatch, they have to eat 10,000 insects a day. Dandelions are a source of food, but they have disappeared from many meadows.”
But that’s not the only use of the flower. For example, it can be used for honey and tea, and you can even make rubber from a specific type of dandelion, which eventually ends up in car and bicycle tires. Hesson Straatsma of the company Lion Flex is busy cultivating as much rubber as possible in the dandelions. “We produce seed ourselves and there are plants in the field from which we make a selection.”
1000 species
In the Netherlands alone there are 1000 different types of dandelions, some of which are quite rare. For example, the swamp dandelion can only be found in a few places and the Taraxacum frisicum only grows in Friesland, and nowhere else in the world.
They ultimately yield rubber. “These are still small trial quantities,” he says. “We’ve already made a number of tires in the past.”
New insight
Reason enough to put the flower in the spotlight on April 30 and no longer consider it a weed, thinks Karst Meijer. “We have to accept that the flower has a place in our lawns. For many people, this insight opens up a new world.”
