Taraxacum?

[Guest guest]

I forwarded Peter Borton's query to dandelion expert Peter Gail. This is

his reply:

 

" What our friend Peter Borton is looking at is a very common lawn weed in

the

Northwest called Cat's Ear (Hypochaeris radicata), which is often

mistaken

for it, although cat's ear has hairy leaves and tough, branched stems

which

produce more than one flower head each. Also, the involucral bracts

don't

curve downward on cat's ear like they do on dandelion. As far as being

related to the dandelion, they are both in the Chicory tribe. Don't know

 

much about its edibility or medical usefulness. Re: potassium-sparing.

I

don't really know the answer to that one. There is no need for

supplementation when using it as a diuretic, but whether it is

potassium-sparing or potassium-replacing, I don't know.

 

Just checked in Couplan's " Encyclopedia of Edible Wild Plants of North

America. " Francois claims the plant has been cultivated as a vegetable

in

Europe, that its young leaves can be eaten raw are crisp and have a

pleasantflavor, without bitterness and make a very good salad. Flower

buds

and heads also can be used like dandelion. Some speciesfrom Western South

 

America have thick edible roots, but he doesn't say whether H. radicata,

the

common Cat's Ear of the Northwest, is one of them. Guess Borton could

check

it out.

 

Another difference between dandelion and cat's ear (also known as false

dandelion) is that the leaves have irregular to rounded lobes on the

margins,

rather than sharp " teeth " .

Hope this all helps.

 

Peter Gail "

 

Karen Vaughan

CreationsGarden

***************************************

Email advice is not a substitute for medical treatment.

" To know what kind of person has a disease is as essential as to know

what kind of a disease a person has. " -Francis Scott Smyth

 

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