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My grand-daughter checking
to see if her mother, "likes butter"
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When I was young, I remember adults used to love to place a dandelion flower under my chin and ask me, "Do you like butter?" And, low and behold, the dandelion would reflect a yellow glow on my chin which supposedly indicated that I liked butter.
The scientific reasoning behind why dandelion’s glow yellow under a person’s chin is complicated; though, I’m told it may be related to pollination or plant reproduction. Whatever the rationale, the brilliant yellow dandelion has been entertaining children and adults, alike, for generations.
I remember loving the magic of the dandelion flower as a child, and I recently had a chance to pass on the dandelion’s enchanted properties to my 5-yr-old grand-daughter. Her delighted first reaction to seeing the yellow glow of the dandelion under her mother’s chin, and then under mine, took me back to years gone by.
Butter, over the decades has acquired a bad reputation, medically, just as dandelions have been the recipient of unfortunate condemnation as weed. More recently, though, butter’s alleged harm is being debunked and the dandelion is aptly heralded for it’s important role in providing pollinator sustenance.
Taraxacum – the dandelion’s scientific name – has been one of my favourite spring-time flowers, since long before I learned about it’s beneficial environmental properties. How lovely that the sunny yellow dandelion still has the ability to entertain children of all ages, and to provide the answer to the age-old question, “Do you like butter?”
