574 Home Nature-Study Course. 



THE DANDELION. 

 LESSON CXXXVHL 



WHY THE DANDELION IS A SUCCESSFUL WEED. 



Preliminary JVork. — Perhaps there is no better way of making the pupils inter- 

 ested in this plant than by comparing it with a great silent army of conquest. The 

 dandelion host is working ever>'where for possession of the land ,and is contesting 

 every square foot of lawn, grass land, roadside, and meadow with the legitimate 

 inhabitants. Explain the difference in the way of fighting between this invader and 

 the invading armies of men. The dandelion sends its seed out to conquer ; each 

 seed has a balloon and the wind floats it away to new territory. Wherever it alights 

 it tries to push its way down into the ground, and as soon as it gets a foothold it 

 crowds out the plants in its neighborhood by taking the food from the soil away 

 from them, and also by stealing their sunlight, with its vigorous rosette of leaves. 



Purpose. — To lead the child to think why the dandelion is such a' 

 dominant weed. 



Encourage the pupils to carefully dig out a vigorous dandelion plant 

 so that they may see how the tap-root goes down deep, so that the plant 

 is able to get both food and water from the soil, which other plants 

 cannot reach with their roots. Note that the dandelion has a rosette of 

 strong leaves, which overlap each other more or less compactly and 

 shades to death the grass or any other plants trying to grow beneath ; 

 let them see that this is why the dandelion is able to occupy so much 

 room. Note how early the first blossom appears in the spring and how 

 late is the last blossom in the fall ; let the pupils sse the significance of 

 this constant effort on the part of the plant to blossom and perfect seed. 

 If they realize that it is through the seed distribution that this plant 

 spreads, they will understand how its ahnost perennial bloom is of the 

 utmost importance to it. Note that if the dandelion grows in the meadow 

 in the tall grass, it sends its blossom and seed stalk high up to the tops 

 of the grass so that the seeds may sail away over the meadow unhin- 

 dered ; but if growing on the lawn the flower stalks are so short that the 

 lawn mower passes over them without cutting, and the seed will be 

 developed on these low stalks quite as well as on those a foot high. In 

 fact, the lawn mower itself is an agency in scattering the seeds. The 

 summary of this lesson should be that the pupils should draw from 

 their own observations and thinking the following conclusions : The 

 dandelion conquers (a) by producing seed for a long season; (b) by 

 flourishing in very different situations equally well; (c) through balloon- 

 ing its seeds into new territory; (d) by rooting deeply; (e) by crowding 

 and shading its neighbors out of existence; (f) by forming vigorous leaf 

 rosettes in the fall, which will live safely underneath the snow and 

 enable the plant to begin work very early in the spring. 



