According to most books and articles, dandelions weren’t seen in the new world until colonists brought them over on the Mayflower. Then presumably, word somehow got out that they had this cool new plant and Native Americans from all over the country came to Plymouth Plantation to learn how to use it.
That may sound farfetched, but it is essentially the conclusion that has to be drawn; that the dandelion is an introduced species unknown in America before 1620 (or 1607) is widely accepted as fact.
So how could the Ojibwe from Minnesota, the Cherokee from Georgia, the Iroquois from New York and many others from the Atlantic to the Pacific have such an extensive knowledge of plants they hadn’t seen until 1620? That they did is well documented and also widely accepted as fact, but how?
The short answer is that Native Americans were most likely using dandelions for thousands of years before anyone ever crossed the Atlantic.
Twice, in 1638 and 1663, John Josselyn traveled to New England from Essex, England to see his brother Henry of Scarborough, Maine. Mr. Josselyn fancied himself a naturalist and, after living in New England for a total of 15 months, published a book in 1672 titled New-England’s rarities discovered in birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, and plants of that country. In his book Mr. Josselyn writes of “such plants as have sprung up since the English planted and kept cattle in New-England,” and one of the plants he lists is the dandelion. Ever since Mr.Josselyn wrote his book, people seem to have assumed that the dandelion came to America either as seeds mixed in with livestock feed or in the manure of cattle. This same story of seed dispersal is also found in several different accounts of the 1607 Jamestown, Virginia settlement. It is worth noting that Mr. Josselyn also wrote of a “pineapple” which turned into a swarm of stinging wasps when picked.
Dandelions were used medicinally and as food in Europe for hundreds of years before the English ever settled New England, so it isn’t hard to imagine them bringing such important plants with them. In fact a compilation titled A List of over 100 Herbs Taken to and Grown in New England by Early Settlers by Roger Tabor lists the dandelion as one of those herbs. Just because certain plants were brought to America doesn’t mean those plants weren’t also native however; the European alder was also introduced, even though there were at least 15 species of alder already here. Obviously the settlers had no way of knowing which plants they would find here.
According to an article titled Drought tolerance in the alpine dandelion, Taraxacum ceratophorum (Asteraceae), its exotic congener T. officinale, and interspecific hybrids under natural and experimental conditions by Marcus T. Brock and Candace Galen, which appeared in the August 1, 2005 issue of The American Journal of Botany, “Fossil evidence indicates that Taraxacum ceratophorum, the alpine dandelion, is native to North America.” The dandelion fossils referred to are estimated to be 100,000 years old.
The alpine dandelion is also known as the horned dandelion, and the U.S.D.A. lists it as native to North America. It grows in parts of New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, along the west coast, in the southwest, Alaska, and nearly all of Canada. Another species native to North America and now endangered is the California dandelion (Taraxacum californicum.) Both of these native species have cross bred with the introduced common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale ) and have produced numerous hybrids.
In the end the question of why nearly everything we read about the history of dandelions in America is based on one sentence written by an amateur naturalist who never left New England and who didn’t bother to mention maple trees or maple syrup can’t be answered. Though it is true that the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale ) was introduced, fossil evidence clearly shows that native dandelions have been here for a very long time, which explains how Native Americans from all over the country could have had such vast knowledge of them.
Very interesting! We have both common and false dandelion here in s. Chile.
Thank you Ron. We also have false dandelions that will appear later. They’re quite a lot smaller.
I found very interesting! I think biogeography and his tory is extremely interesting. Thank you! ☺️
You’re welcome!
Could I please have permission to quote part of your dandelion article in my upcoming self-published book “A World Without Butterflies”? I would be happy to send you a copy when it gets printed. Thank you.
An article by Allen Norcross — https://nhgardensolutions.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/the-dandelion-debate/
“According to most books and articles, dandelions weren’t seen in the new world until colonists brought them over on the Mayflower. Then presumably, word somehow got out that they had this cool new plant and Native Americans from all over the country came to Plymouth Plantation to learn how to use it. That may sound farfetched, but it is essentially the conclusion that has to be drawn; that the dandelion is an introduced species unknown in America before 1620 (or 1607) is widely accepted as fact. So how could the Ojibwe from Minnesota, the Cherokee from Georgia, the Iroquois from New York and many others from the Atlantic to the Pacific have such an extensive knowledge of plants they hadn’t seen until 1620? That they did is very well documented and also widely accepted as fact, but how?”
“The short answer is that Native Americans were most likely using dandelions for thousands of years before anyone ever crossed the Atlantic. Though it is true that the most common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale ) was introduced, fossil evidence clearly shows that native dandelions (Taraxacum ceratophorum , Taraxacum californicum, etc.) have been here for a very long time, which explains how Native Americans from all over the country could have had such a vast knowledge of them.”
Yes Judy, feel free to use it. I hope it works well in your book and I’d love to see it when it gets published!
Allen
Awesome! Thank you for such a great article! I’ll contact you when I have copies.
You’re welcome. I can’t wait to see the book. Good luck!
My book is hot off the press! I’ll need an address to send your copy. My email is judy@butterflynature.com
This is amazing. I needed more information so I checked the USDA plant list (I don’t include the link because this blog didn’t accept it when I tried). I found out that there are many species of native Taraxacum plus at least three non native ones (T. laevigatum, palustris and spectabili. There is also one which is both native and non native, T. officinale, the common dandelion.
Elsewhere I read that T. officinale arrived from Asia in the Pleistocene. If this is so the Palaearctic and Nearctic populations would have diverged enough to be significantly different. I am looking for genetic studies; but so far no luck.
I know that there are dandelions in South America and now I am curious about those, too.
I’m glad this post helped you a bit. I wish you luck in your search-papers on prehistoric dandelions are hard to come by! I can’t remember seeing anything on genetics when I was researching this post, but I’d bet that it’s out there somewhere.
Thank you!
You’re welcome!
I didn’t know this- very interesting. Great blog by the way!
Thanks, I enjoy yours too. Thanks for stopping by.
Interesting post. When one has not observed a species it is easy to make assumptions. Walking over our place for years now I am always discovering plants I have not seen before. While researching to find out about bindweed I found out about dormancy of seeds. The fact that seeds may lie dormant for years and years and years made sense to me why I had not observed so many plants before. Last year I watched a Zebra swallowtail butterfly which is rare here feeding on dandelions in early spring. This was the first time to see a large butterfly feeding on these plants. Native Americans where much more connected due to their lifestyle being so different I suppose.
Yes, to natives plants were a matter of life or death and they used every possible part of any plant or animal they had. When it comes to plants I’ve learned not to assume anything. The minute I think I’ve got one figured out it seems to go far out of its way to show me that I don’t know beans. I didn’t know that bindweed seed had such a long dormancy-interesting. It’s another plant I’ll have to look deeper into. Right now I’m getting caught up in plants like ponderosa pine, mountain ash and fireweed that use fire to survive and reproduce. It’s amazing.
I call that “fascinating.” I had always heard that T. officinale was non-native, but never knew the source of that information. I will look at the lowly dandelion with a renewed sense of respect!
I wrote this with you in mind, thinking you deserved a more in depth answer to your native dandelion question than I gave you in reply to a comment you made. Dandelions certainly desrve a second look-they are one of the most nutritious plants known.