西洋蒲公英 Taraxacum officinale
Perhaps dandelions are just too common to be appreciated properly. Their flower heads, composed of dozens of individual florets, lend pretty splashes, and even carpets, of intense yellow to temperate open fields and verges, and punctuate the monotonous green of garden lawns. Often regarded as weeds, they certainly spread easily. Some, especially in southern Europe, reproduce in the traditional way, with flowers that are pollinated by insects, even beckoning them with ultraviolet patterns on their petals. However, in a process called apomixis, dandelions can also create fertile seeds asexually, cloning themselves without all that pollen pallaver.*
蒲公英常見，往往被視為雜草，但它的頭花由很多的小花所組成，鮮黃的花色，在綠色的園子𥚃，顯得非常突出。蒲公英可以透過昆蟲授粉，它花瓣上的紫外光圖案就是為了吸引昆蟲。蒲公英也可以用無融合生殖(apomixis, 無性生殖產生種子)的方式，複製子代。
Dandelion seed heads are feathery white spheres the size of a golf ball—transient, delicate and captivatingly beautiful. Each globe comprises dozens of seeds, flimsily attached to the seed heads and supported by a tiny parasol, a ‘pappus’ of downy bristles, like a miniature chimney sweep’s brush. These little parachutes help the seeds to be wafted far on the breeze in a way that has only recently been understood. As it falls, each pappus is supported by a tiny halo of spinning air just above it, a vortex like a horizontal smoke ring(only without the smoke, of course) that massively slows the seeds’s descent. For the vortex to form, the number of minuscule bristles—always between 90 and 110—and the spacing between them must be just right. It is the evolutionary wonder that engendered the tradition of a wish being granted for a dandelion seed caught in mid-flight.*
蒲公英成熟的種子毛球，是透明、輕盈而且美麗的。種子毛球由諸多的瘦果組成。每個瘦果，上面有類似羽絨的冠毛(pappus)，有助於讓瘦果隨風飄往遠處。在瘦果降落時冠毛上的鋼毛，數量大約有90到110條，分佈呈現特定的間隔，旋轉時產生的微渦流，就可以減緩下降的速度。蒲公英的瘦果演化的神奇，傳統迷信如果能在空中剛好抓到一顆，那麼許願即為可成。
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蒲公英的莖，尤其最多是根部，有白色的汁液，是一種膠乳。以前在橡膠缺乏的時候，有一種叫Russian Dandelion(Taraxacum kok-saghyz)的蒲公英品種，曾大量種植來生產橡膠(rubber)。近來，由於保護雨林的環保呼聲益高，蒲公英的膠乳製成輪胎，已經在市面上買得到了。
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In nineteenth-century France, salads of the common dandelion’s elongated, jagged leaves are popular, partly for their gently diuretic properties, which have given the plant the charming name pissenlit(pee-in-the-bed). The French still use it for salad greens, for ‘coffee’ made from the roots and for cramaillotte, a tangy jelly from the flowers…*
19世紀的法國，蒲公英的葉子拿來做沙拉。它有輕微的利尿作用，也被暱稱為「尿床」。現在，法國人還是會將蒲公英的綠葉加入到沙拉中，蒲公英的根烘烤當作「咖啡」來泡飲，蒲公英的花則製成一種嗆鼻的法式果凍。
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蒲公英種子隨風飄散的特性，象徵著新的開始、跨越時空的祝福，也寓意著一種無法停留卻又充滿希望的愛與思念。 (~Google)
如果你是蒲公英，那麼代表自由、流浪、漂泊、堅靭的生命、隨時隨地皆可以的安身立命。
如果你愛的人是蒲公英，那麼是偶遇、留不住恆久的愛。
如果你自己和你愛的人都是蒲公英，那麼會是什麼呢？
*：Jonathan Drori, “Around the world in 80 plants,“ 2021，Laurence King Publishing
P.S. 西洋蒲公英 Taraxacum officinale 2025/5/24 攝於日本北海道旭川，海拔約110公尺。 #西洋蒲公英
2025/11/4 西洋蒲公英 Taraxacum officinale Damakey
