The Fascinating History of Dandelions | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's puffball Chuck and. there's blowball Jerry and they like to. call me monk's head and this is stuff. you should. know did you get those. references uh sure okay well we should. probably explain them to every body else.

cuz they probably think it's an in joke. but it's not at all number one because. we're about to share it with you number. two it's not really a joke and number. three those are alternate names for. dandelions that's right and we're going. to be exalting the dandelion probably. say a lot of times uh how great we think. it is yeah sorry if you hate dandelions. yeah how it's unfairly maligned and we. want to thank Sarah Andrews from Idaho. because Sarah is a listener who sent.

this in nice very nice thanks a lot. Sarah every time I hear Idaho I'm. reminded of that silly t-shirt that said. Idaho. udaho do you remember that one I never. saw that one what was that one there was. a company called like dangerous t-shirts. or something like that and they had like. and they were killing it with the the. Crazy T-shirts for a while in like the. early. 2000s is that like uh instead of saying. Coke it would say you know poke or.

cocaine yeah that kind of thing yeah. kind of sometimes more original than. that but yeah they were coveted for a. little bit among people who liked. Incubus and stuff like that. uh I couldn't name an thinkk you a song. so that's not me okay so let's get back. to dandelion I don't know how we ever. get off track it's kind of strange but. it happens from time to time and it just. happened Chuck so let's stop it from. happening right now right uh because.

dandelions as you will see have had a. long Rich history uh that we're going to. talk about in depth as a medicinal plant. as an edible plant as a wonderful. pollinator uh and it was recast as a. villain as a as a weed to get rid of but. you need only look at the history of the. dandelion the fact that it was brought. to North America by colonists to kind of. underscore the fact that we wanted the.

dandelion here right and it's important. to say that they brought it here on. purpose I I saw somebody point out like. this it wasn't it didn't hitch a ride it. was like purposefully brought here and. the idea that dandelion suck is a really. recent. development uh especially compared to. how long people valued and prized. dandelion I just find that fascinating. for sure uh this thing is about 30. million years old uh Native in um sort.

of Atlantic Europe all the way to. Siberia MH and in the northern. hemisphere you're going to know a. dandelion because between March and. October you're going to see these. beautiful yellow. flowers uh you'll see some what's called. a rosette which are these very short. level ground stems that grow in a. circular pattern and then these little. slender green Hollow stalks you know two. to 20 Ines but usually at least around. here the dandelions are I don't know.

like eight inches yeah that seems about. right that's my experience as well yeah. so one of the other really impressive. things about the dandelion is if you. look really closely at the flower each. individual petal has a little um what. becomes the the part of the puff ball. when the when the flower. seeds uh it already is attached and that. thing is called a papis and at the. bottom of the papis is the seed and the. papis itself is like this like parachute.

essentially that keeps the seed a loft. and Research into I I saw papy but I. like papes as the plural o I love papy. so uh it's found that they're actually. phenomenal at keeping the seeds Aloft. like they create a kind of Vortex that. until it was seen um when they started. testing papy um was thought to be.

impossible yeah and that Vortex not only. makes it you know travel up and out and. Away in such a way that if it was shaped. any differently it wouldn't do that but. if that little thing lands on water that. same Vortex is going to form a little. air bubble around it and protect it yeah. one of my prized possessions is this um. uh dandelion puffball in encased in. resin and it's like the real deal and. I've never understood how it worked but. it turns out that if you actually take a. dandelion puff ball and actually not.

just put water in it but submerge it in. water the puff ball does not it doesn't. collapse isn't that nuts it's amazing I. think so too so that's just one of the. many amazing things we're going to. reveal today on stuff you should know. that did I wander into the wrong show I. know well we should tell everybody it's. 10:00 a.m. and we usually record it once. so I'm a much different person at 10:00. a.m. you're a new.

apparently so I mentioned yellow they're. not always yellow they can be orange. they can be white uh they can be kind of. purpley peach uh they open in the. morning and close in the evening uh. which is given them the name the. shepherd's clock uh and they do that to. preserve pollen uh and keep that pollen. safe for the next day uh which also. makes it and this is one of my favorite. words a photon. nasty oh that's a great word yeah plants. open and closed.

with the setting and rising of the sun. it's called Photon nasty huh I saw a uh. like a time lapse I actually wasn't a V. video it was just a series of photos of. the um dandelion flower opening and. closing over the course of the day um I. found I ran across a word from. researching this that I'd never heard. before that I absolutely love um. dandelions like you said are edible. they're used in cooking their culinary. plant which makes them a pot herb one. word a pot herb isn't that awesome what.

a great homey little like I just imagine. you know Hobbits using that word yeah. Hobbits and my wife oh does she call him. Potters you've heard that before oh yeah. yeah she's I mean I told her we were. talking about dandelion today and she. was just like oh are you g to talk about. this this this this this this right. she's like oh the famous. Potter uh it's also another kind of. clock you know I already mentioned the. shepherd's clock because the opening and. closing at at the sunrise and sunset but. MH um those little seed heads they're.

called dandelion clocks and that is from. the old uh you know you make a wish when. you blow uh the dandelion and you. scatter those seeds is sort of a long. Rich childhood tradition um but. apparently the number of Puffs it takes. to empty that thing is what time it is. so it can I haven't tested this out I. don't know if if this is Rock Solid. science but that's a sort of a thing H. that's pretty neat yeah um and one other. thing about those um papes and the seeds.

that are attached to them there's a. longstanding um I guess kind of urban. legend or maybe ryal Legend um that they. can travel up to 100 kilometers 62 miles. and that does not seem to be the case. even though you'll see that stat. absolutely everywhere including some. legitimate places but um Kyle uh helped. us with this our British buddy um and he. found that a 2003 study which is the. most recent you can find on this is that.

um just one in 7,000 papes travels more. than 1 kilometer so just leave a 100. kilometers out of the whole equation. yeah and Kyle told us that because he's. from England but uh for our North. American listeners we're talking 320. something feet if it's 100 kmers and. about 3 and A2 ft uh for a meter yeah. and apparently 99 and a half% of all. papes land just Within 30 ft of the.

parent plant which is also 10 m um so. yes if you ever hear that a papis can. can travel 100 kmers you can be like. that's wrong what you just said is wrong. I think like one did and they they. framed that but maybe that's the one you. have in Amber yeah it's like that first. dollar bill you make as a business you. you put it into Amber yeah uh there's. also a cool adaptation where after they. flower that little Hollow stock that the. flower sits upon goes limp on the ground. and is just sort of hiding there away.

from birds and stuff and when they ripen. up they jump back up again and they're. like here we are that's pretty cool I. think so too do you want to take a break. and come back and talk about where they. got their name let's do it. [Music].

so Chuck uh dandelion I've never stopped. and considered why it was called that um. but it turns out that whole that Lion at. the end is actually a giveaway for where. the name came from uh it's French for. Lion's tooth Dent de Leon pretty neat I. love that the reason they call it that. is it's a reference to the deeply. serrated Jagged leaves I guess some he. was like that looks like a lion's tooth.

and they lived in France and that's. where they got the name. dandelion yeah and it's also if you look. at the uh the botanical name it really. gives a good indication of what it was. being used for back then uh the genus. name is uh toxicum and there are a. couple of explanations here I kind of. like the second one um the first one is. a Greek uh word for disorder which is. ATT taxia um but it's also uh could have. come from Arabic for bitter herb which. is bar shog mhm uh and then when you.

combine bitter herb with the species. name which is uh what how would you say. that offic I don't know officiali um. that is a word for U Monastery store. room so a bitter Herb in a monastery. store room basically is telling you hey. we use this plant in a very productive. way yeah the whole disorder thing is. totally insensible if you ask me yeah I. agree so um one of the other great. things so humans use dandelions as we'll.

see in a lot of different ways and have. for a very long time but the um the our. animal friends love dandelions too uh. those flowers even though they look kind. of flimsy if you think about it they're. rich in nectar packed with it so bees. butterflies basically any kind of. pollinators love dandelions um like you. said the reason this the stock falls to. the ground after flowering and as the. seed heads are developing um that's. because birds love the little dandelion.

seeds so and one of the other things. that's important about them too is they. um they basically flour and Seed almost. around the like the whole year depending. on on where you live so at times where. there's not a lot of food sources for um. birds and pollinators the dandelion. there to kind of keep them going through. the say you know late fall. yeah yeah and I think it's one of the.

the first guys to get going in the. spring too right I believe so yep so. we're going to get more in detail about. you know how it's been eaten but um well. actually let's let's save all that let's. just let's just tease it then and say it. it has long been eaten is now being. eaten again uh due to the um sort of. foraging movement happening in The. Culinary world it's a great te I think. that kind of kicked off in covid uh when. people are like well I can't go to the. store what can I heat that's in my. backyard I'll try dandelion I've always.

wondered what they taste like bitter so. uh yeah nice so um I think we said. probably a couple times that people have. been using dandelions for all sorts of. reasons not just as pot herbs uh for a. long time um one of the earlier mentions. we can find was in the Arabic World. couple of Physicians named uh razis and. avisena both wrote about some of the. properties of um dandelion and dandelion. Roots back in the 10th and 11th.

centuries and. um most of what they were talking about. was its use as a diuretic and uh. medically speaking that's probably the. most famous property that dandelions. have is they make you pee and in fact. there's a couple of names that refer to. that depending on where you are for. dandelions that refer to the fact that. they make you pee right yeah that's. right in France uh they're called the. Apparently more than they're called the. Denton they're called the the pisson lit.

uh which means you know PP in the night. uh and a folk name in England is a. pissed for the same reason yeah and you. know apparently it's a it's all the. potassium in there that's going to. stimulate urination and you know because. of that diuretics are are used for a lot. of things um and you know medically now. and historically uh if you want to work. something through your system and pee it. out dandelion is a good way to make that. happen yeah and very famously in the. American Midwest they're called peee.

weeds a that's that's totally made up I. should say oh that's not true either no. I just made it up oh okay I got you I. got you back for the what was the. lateral Gene transfer gospel group that. you got me with oh jeez I don't even. remember now it was that but I've only. gotten you once the score is Josh 3,000. one oh man uh the was a 16th century.

book too what was the name of that one. people call it Garden of health because. the full title of it is containing the. sunry rare and hidden virtues of all. kinds of simples and plants together. with the manner of how they are used and. applied in medicine for the health of. man's body against diverse diseases and. infirmities most common against men. gathered by the long experience in. Industry of William langum practitioner. of physic that's the actual title of.

that book which is why there's like yeah. we're just going to call it Garden of. Health I mean Garden of Health really. says what that says I know he didn't. need all that extra stuff that's like. the the introduction I think he put the. introduction in the title yeah that's a. little did it say the end at the end. pretty. much uh this is from like I said the. 16th century and it talked a lot about. um you know all kinds of things they. thought it could help back then. toothaches fevers uh depression even. baldness uh but they also talked about. growing it alongside other vegetables.

and herbs in the garden and you duck up. this kind of cool fact uh it's ethylene. gas that they release so if you actually. grow dandelion or have dandelion growing. near fruiting plants like tomatoes. they're going to ripen faster yeah isn't. that neat super cool yeah we're going to. cover a lot of actually pretty cool. little um benefits I guess that they. provide but let's keep going with the. the tradition of using them medically. shall we sure there's a guy named John. Ard who wrote a book in the 1630s and.

he's like hey I want to contribute to. this too I've found that dandelion. strengthens the weak stomach um and. which is important because actually if. you use the roots of a dandelion um it's. a it contains a lot of inulin which is. an important Prebiotic for gut health so. John Gerard wasn't just whistle and. Dixie no not at all uh it turns out they. have more vitamin A than spinach uh more. vitamin C than tomatoes they've got a. ton uh we already mentioned potassium.

but also a lot of calcium a lot of iron. uh and then a lot of words that I can. barely pronounce that uh you found that. it's packed with uh starting with. flavonoids that's the only one I had. heard of uh that's it has triterpenes. sesquiterpenes phenolic acids sterols. and cumarin and they bestow things like. antibacterial antioxidant. anti-inflammatory hepatoprotective and. anti-tumor properties and you dug up a. lot of ways that they actually help.

health right yeah so I mean we can talk. all day about like the ways that people. thought it would help you back in the. you know 16th century uh but people. might poooo something like that uh but. there have been modern studies uh I'll. just give you a few examples uh there. was a study from 2015 in Canada uh that. reported that dandelion extract can. block uh ultraviolet UVB radiation when. applied to the. skin uh it can also irritate the skin. don't necessarily just like take.

dandelions and like start rubbing them. all over yourself at the pool uh there. was a 2016 review of studies uh from a. university in Denmark that suggests that. dandelion extracts actually stimulates. pancreatic cells to produce insulin uh. so it could potentially help control. blood sugar. right uh and what about there was one on. the liver too right yeah I said it was. hipat protective which means it it helps. the liver and actually it goes in and. like just kicks butt in your liver it it.

slows the prog progression of fibrosis. which is scarring of the liver and the. extract actually inactivates the cells. that cause fibrosis in the liver and. essentially your liver as everybody. knows it can regenerate itself once the. the dandelion extract has gone in and. stopped the fibrosis the liver can heal. so it's incredibly helpful with um. protecting the liver from damage I mean. that's nuts it's almost like it was. designed to do that for the liver it's.

that effective uh I do want to mention. the cancer one because Emily had a very. funny very Emily line uh there was a. 2020 uh man why do I do that lately. 20202 I did that I did that on a lot. yeah what is happening I don't know uh. it's a uh study from the University of. Windsor in Canada about dandelion root. extract uh can induce um a uh apoptosis. which is cell death in pancreatic and. prostate cancer and test tube uh and. their cells in the test tubes uh.

potentially preventing their spread so. this is something Emily knew and this. morning she was like yeah it it's so. like um modern American at the very. least to take something that could. actually help fight cancer and spray. chemicals on it to kill it that cause. cancer right yeah and she stormed out of. the room sometimes we have to learn the. hard way but it is it is reassuring that. things seem to be coming full circle you. know what I mean yeah I feel like people. are getting a little more eyes open to.

stuff like that yeah they're getting on. board the dandelion train so one thing. about those studies that you you said. like they're they're they're essentially. confirming to um our modern tastes what. the Chinese knew all the way back in 659. CE um people like Nicholas col pepper. knew in the 18th century all these. people wrote about this stuff and just. how effective it was and then now. science is going in and saying these. people are right and here's how it is.

effective uh I I think that's pretty. cool and in part because of that the. dandelion is being rehabilitated but um. first I think we need to mention you. said that uh it came by North America I. piped up on purpose I think more than. once even I was so excited about that. and it's possible it was actually on the. Mayflower it arrived that early and they. think that because of plant migration as. we talked about before the dandelion may. have spread ahead of Europe Europeans as. they entered further and further into.

the North American continent and so. Native Americans that they encountered. um may have already been using. dandelions in some of their. medicines oh yeah absolutely they were. drinking it in tonics uh they were. boiling it with uh fatty Meats which is. sounds disgusting it does it really does. fatty Meats unless you're talking about. something like collards with like ham. Hawks or something that that sounds okay. but I in this case I I imagine a a pot.

of boiling water with a a skin of fat. just bubbling at the top and some. dandelion leaves floating around in. it uh and we'll talk about you know more. ways you can eat it but it's long been. used in like cordel and beers like the. dandelion root uh you can you know grind. it up and use it as like a coffee. substitute kind of like chory um so you. know people were using it for medicine. they were using it for old kinds of uh. folk remedies and foods and things um. largely because again it was everywhere. it grows in not very good soil uh they.

can it's considered a perennial cuz they. can live uh well cuz like you said. they're kind of growing year round but. they can live for more than 10 years uh. if you don't mess with them and kill. them yeah yeah I think that's pretty. cool too one of the other things I saw. um there's a book called The economical. housewife from the 1850s that it might. be the first recipe for dandelion wine. and people still make that today and. it's actually super easy you just take. some dandelion flowers some water. eventually you add some sugar and some.

lemon let it sit for a couple of weeks. strain it out and then let it sit for. another week and age and you've got. yourself some dandelion wine and it. sounds deliciously easy or maybe easily. delicious one of the two but I'd love to. try it have you ever had dandelion wine. or dandelion beer or anything like that. no not at all um I mean it's definitely. a Thing Ray Bradberry had a novel called. dandelion wine from 1957 so it's. something that's been enjoyed all over. the world um in France they use it.

sometimes they they'll take the uh. leaves and blanch them and spread them. with bread and butter like uh it sound. like if there's not a a Brooklyn. restaurant serving dandelion toast at. this point yeah then what is happening. in our world I don't know it sounds like. fairy toast like the Australians love. but with dandelion leaves instead yeah. uh it's also you know just a salad uh a. salad green um component and like we. said it is very bitter but it's used in.

all kinds of salad sometimes it's the. only kind of leaf used in a salad. sometimes it can be mixed in with other. things but uh in France they have one. called the salad day uh piss and lits. from that original name uh that's got. bacon in it and dandelion leaves it just. you know sounds pretty good to me yeah. apparently that was a common um dish. during the Depression in America too. because it was just cheap you know yeah. and it sounds delicious too uh I say we. take a break and we come back and talk.

about another surprising use of. dandelion that I hadn't heard of until. this but you probably did because of. Emily no I delighted her with that fact. as well so we'll be right back. [Music].

all right so Josh said that he hadn't. heard of this cool fact I hadn't heard. of it Emily hadn't heard of it and I. think it may be the fact of the podcast. but dandelions are a source of natural. rubber pretty cool I would I would take. issue with that I think it has to do. with the vortices over the papy or the.

fact that they're pot. herbs all right this one this one's good. it's up there maybe they're all tied for. first I don't know but hey that means we. got a good topic if there are several. that's right uh competitors yeah and so. not just any dandelion produces um. rubber or latex that can be turned into. rubber spe a specific type of dandelion. they figured out the kazak dandel line. which is native to the the um Eurasian. steps. how'd you like that um it's also called.

the Russian dandelion here in the United. States that specific one puts out enough. um latex that it gave rubber trees a run. for their money during World War II when. which we've talked about many times. America and Britain were like we need. more rubber for the war effort and the. Japanese control essentially all of the. rubber Supply we're at war with the. Japanese so we better come up with. something else quick yeah so they. literally started screening like.

thousands and thousands of plants and. then I guess they were like hey if the. uh if the rubber tree can grow rubber. there's got to be something else out. there um the Soviets are the ones who. said try this kazak dandelion it's PR. and because of shortages during the wars. uh they said here here's a bunch of. seeds and they sent a bunch of those. kazak seeds uh the Soviet allies at the. time in the 1940s and ultimately we used. some of it Russians Americans and. Germans did produce rubber from.

dandelions it's very hearty um it can be. susceptible to disease though uh. depending what kind of disease but also. grows everywhere and serves as a. pollinator and it's uh doesn't DeForest. things so uh the big problem though and. I know everyone's like oh my God is this. the miracle we've all been hoping for. with rubber it just doesn't yield as. much as the Russians said it did and so. it's not economically viable as long as. the real rubber tree is mhm they. released some paper that um that.

overstated how much rubber can be gotten. from the dandelion cuz they wanted to. sound like big shots yeah so the reason. why we didn't just keep going with um. dandelion rubber research in trying to. figure out how to increase yields is. because in the meantime people figured. out we could make synthetic rubber from. petroleum it was almost as good as. natural rubber it certainly was a good. enough substitute and we could just make. batch after batch after batch uh rather. than have to try to yield it from.

dandelion so that fell to the Wayside. and then by the time the World War II. ended we had access to Natural rubber. supplies from the from the southeast. southeast Asia I should say um and so. all that kind of put dandelion rubber on. the back shelf but in the. what 80 almost 100 years gez since World. War II um I remember when that was like. just like that was firmly like 40 to 50.

years in the past and it just keeps. getting further and further away it's. really awful but um we we've kind of. figured out in the intrum that synthetic. rubber it's useful but there's nothing. that can match natural rubber for like. grip heat dissipation all sorts of other. properties so we're starting to go back. to look at sources for natural rubber. including ones that are more sustainable. than the rubber trees which require you. basically DeForest and then plant the. rubber trees to create a plantation with.

dandelions you don't have to do that. stuff no you got a big field you can. have dandelions and like I said it grows. in uh it doesn't have to be great soil. you can grow it. hydroponically uh without soil at all. you can grow it uh in the air which is. aeroponically um it's it's pretty. amazing and I think it's one of those. things where like anytime you have a. monoculture plant like that like the. rubber tree it makes people a little bit. nervous um besides a deforestation like. have anything ever happened uh like some.

kind of weird blight and the rubber. trees were just you know not a candidate. anymore you got dandelion kind of. waiting on Deck with their bat right so. it's kind of surprising that it went. from this really prized plant in so many. ways to a hated weed especially in. Europe and the United States and you hit. upon why it became a hated weed you use. the word monoculture and the largest. monoculture here in the United States. are people's lawns. and for part of the aesthetic of the.

lawn you cannot have dandelions breaking. up that perfect. unbroken sea of green grass you got a. dandelion popping up the whole thing's. ruined basically that's the way people. think of dandelions in lawns these days. or have since about the 50s essentially. that beautiful yellow flower stomp it. right dig it up uh but yeah that's what. happened and we we've gone over this. before but just sort of as a quick. overview. uh this is the kind of thing that came.

over from England starting in the 17th. century is when British aristocracy. really started to get into these perfect. sort of uh croquet um croquet playing. Lawns I guess is what you would call. them uh and then in America it was post. World War II when uh suburbanization. really took hold um lawnmowers really. came into their own uh everyone was like. Hey we've got these great new chemal. chemicals that'll kill everything uh.

except and make the grass grow really. really well and it's um it's just modern. and tidy and good-looking and that. really kind of. transformed the United States uh you. know like keep up that lawn make a. perfect green lawn if you want to keep. your property value up everybody that's. a big one and Kyle also dug up another. reason too that once the Cold War rolled. around Conformity was equated with. safety so if you weren't keeping your. lawn trimmed like everybody else what's. going on with you you're making me feel.

a little bit nervous cuz you're not. conforming you must be a red spy hiding. out in Suburbia basically right and I. think that's a really important kind of. overlooked um driver for things like. perfectly manicured Lawns and everybody. having the same kind of thing yeah and. speaking of driver the other I don't. think we've ever mentioned uh. contributor to this nice was in the. 1950s uh golf started being televised in. 1957. uh you you got golf on television for.

the first time and people look at. Augusta National in these golf courses. that were beautifully manicured um and. aesthetically pleasing to the eye and. they were like hey I need to get some of. that in my front yard maybe I can. practice chipping some balls around in. my front yard yeah um also if you're. sitting there thinking like wow I really. love hearing these guys talk about grass. but I'd love to hear them have a dispute. over it you should go listen to how our. Grass Works episode it's actually a. pretty good it's a classic stuff you. should know episode it totally is uh but.

anyway all that Preamble about you know. us poo pooing Lawns and why America did. that um brought us to this which is. weeds became Enemy Number One and. dandelions were maybe even near the top. of that list yeah there's a lot of. reasons why for all the reasons that. they're valuable the pollinators and. other kinds of plants and that they can. grow in marginal lands and basically. everywhere is it makes an enemy as a. weed if you're trying to create a.

monoculture lawn right so they can. regenerate from like a 1in section of. root which means that if you cut a. dandelion off at the at even below. ground level it's like good you know. good Tri pal but it just Sprouts right. back up you have to dig them up and even. after you dig them up you might not get. them because one of the things that I. didn't know about dandelions is I knew. they grew from a tap route you have to. get that tap rout up or else you're it's. just feudal yeah but that tap rout can.

grow depending on the age of the. dandelion over a dozen feet meters four. meters into the ground meters yeah and. um that makes it really hard to get rid. of and so if you're like a grounds. keeper for a golf course or something. like that you have to really keep up. with the dandelions because they'll. spread really fast and they're really. hard to get rid of once you do uh start. trying to get rid of them yeah for sure. um and oh I got to say this last fact.

from Kyle because uh it goes back to the. Lawns but this really kind of drives it. home of about how um not great a perfect. green lawn is for our society there was. a study in 2005 residential lawns in the. United States make up 2% of the land but. require more irrigation than any. domestic agricultural crop I've got I've. got one to piggyback on that let's he. the US fish and wildlife service says. that homeowners use up to 10 times more. pesticides per acre than farmers use on.

their. crops so we're using this stuff. overusing it and we're using it on stuff. that's not productive land just to keep. up with the Joneses so they don't think. we're communist. spies yeah and you know I walk uh Gibson. in the mornings and there are the only. Lawns that he ever like rubs his face in. are the the most perfect green ones and. I know that it's because they have. recently been sprayed and he's smells it.

and is trying to rub all in that stuff. and it drives me bonkers yeah I it's. it's a like I would love to just let my. lawn and youi too um just go to like. wild flowers go to weeds you know just. mow it you keep it mowed but at a higher. height but yeah you just let this stuff. grow and we would be completely we would. stick out like a sore thrum from the. rest of the neighborhood so much so that. our neighbors would be mad at us that's. how that's how entrenched the idea of. having a Perfect Lawn is still in the.

United States depending on where you. live yeah for sure and like no one. around there even does like permaculture. and you know other other options besides. just letting it grow wild and crazy no. it's it's nuts so we definitely draw a. line so we're like okay we'll keep up. with the lawn but don't touch the you. know the um Shrubbery the perennials the. garden essentially right but people will. hire the same company to like treat. their lawn with chemicals to spray their. bushes and spray their Gardens with.

chemicals to kill off the bugs and then. they have to go in and try to recreate. the stuff that the bugs are doing for. free the services they're providing U. because you've killed off the bugs it's. it's insane to me uh so we definitely. don't don't we don't caught into that. yeah uh there was um speaking of bugs it. was a scientif scientific review in 2019. that found that the global mass of. insects is falling at a rate of about. two and a half percent per.

year uh and dandelion is a high high on. the list of pollinators uh caterpillars. love munching on them moths love. munching on them and all those bees and. butterflies love doing their thing on. them uh so even you know I'm not trying. to to shame people but let's say you do. like your lawn and everything even. waiting in the spring like longer to cut. it even cutting it higher letting the. dandelions grow up a little bit before. before you start whacking them down even.

that minimal amount will help out a. little bit what's interesting is a. non-chemical way I saw to treat your. turf grass for dandelions is to let your. grass grow longer than you have been. like cutting it at a a higher mower. height yeah because as we talked about. dandelion leaves are so low growing that. the grass will shade out and out compete. the dandelion so if you really do want. to get rid of dandelions but you don't. want to use chemicals there's that's a. pretty good way to do it from what I. seen yeah totally uh some states have.

actual programs there's one in Minnesota. called Lawns to legumes which is a great. title uh they launched that in 2019. where they just basically incentiv PE. incentivize people to say get rid of. that lawn put in flowering plants put in. beds uh you can have a rebate if you. have a a pollinator friendly native. wildf flower scene uh at your house yeah. I didn't look up the amount but um I. would guess at at a minimum the rebate. is worth a million dollars right that'd.

be my my guess you think so there's a. couple other things that I found that um. dandelion uh I don't know if you looked. at it or not that they they kind of. provide services to the the plants. growing around them including grass yeah. because as we mentioned those tap Roots. they grow really deep and as they're. growing deep they're actually accessing. nutrients that other plants around them. again including grass the roots of those. plants can't reach because it's too deep.

and it brings those nutrients up toward. the surface and as the dandelion dies. off the other plants get to um get to. eat those nutrients that they otherwise. wouldn't have had access to and those. same Roots also aate and loosen. compacted dirt too which makes it easier. for the plants around the dandelions to. grow amazing is there anything dandelion. can't do. [Laughter]. I don't know I mean uh they're not super.

fragrant no that's true they're pretty. much useless in that sense but they can. grant a child a wish they sure can man. they sure can I remember doing that so. many times I keep trying to do that with. my dandelion puff head in resin and it's. not. working uh I don't have anything else. though I'm kind of looking over the list. here I know we were kind of all over the. place but it's just sort of one of those. episodes where it's like well here's a. list of a hundred amazing things and so. sometimes those are a little tougher to.

organize yeah but they're they can be. pretty fun too I had fun at least how. about you I did too and that rubber. thing are you kidding me no uh since. neither one of us has anything else. about dandel liion then we're going to. call it quits on this episode which. means we've just activated listener. mail you know uh no listener mail today. cuz what we're going to do is something. we haven't done in a while uh is help. support and bring some attention to a. great cause our friends from The. Cooperative for Education AKA co-ed.

whose mission it is to break the cycle. of poverty in Guatemala through. education and we've been working with. them for 15 years and uh we got a new. thing coming up with them right yes we. do so first let me just explain over $. 1.3 million in contributions have been. made to co-ed thanks to our partnership. with them at stuff you should know for. 15 years that's that's really good if. you ask me that's incredible which means. that 160 kids have been given like a. huge leg up uh to escape poverty and.

create like break intergenerational. poverty and create literally like a new. life for their entire family from that. point on that's right uh you know we. went down there uh I guess 15 years ago. when they invited us very early on and. stuff you should know is um Canon Yeah. in our history and we went down to. Guatemala and those shows we did some. shows on that that trip and that visit. we get to actually hear Jerry speak. which is pretty exciting yeah they're. just great that we've been working with. them ever since and the fact that the St.

fuchan Army has raised 1.3 million bucks. for them over the past 15 years is going. to be a real proud part of our Legacy uh. but we have a call to action right yes. so you can join we're starting a drive. essentially right now that's right you. can join the Cooperative uh which is a. program of theirs for $20 a month and it. you'll collectively sponsor a bunch of. students in the rise youth development. program right that's right and so it's. going to get spread spr out you're going. to be helping a bunch of kids at once so. you can feel good like five times over.

with each each monthly donation and then. in 20125 more than 1100 students will be. able to start school in rural Guatemala. which will be their biggest class ever. they need help to make that happen which. is why we're saying join the Cooperative. that's right and as an incentive if this. is for you if you set up your gift by um. Tuesday December 3rd then you are signed. up for a chance to do a virtual hangout. with Josh and I we do this every year.

around the same time it's always a lot. of fun we hang out with uh I don't know. six or eight people all over the country. and they get to just you know ask us. questions and tell us that we're cool or. dumb or whatever uh it's your chance to. really hand it to us if that's what. you're after right yeah hopefully don't. do that but sure I mean I guess if. you've given to co-ed then you deserve. to do whatever you want to us that's. right so uh just go to cooperative for. education.org that's the word. Cooperative fo R education.org.

ssk and uh start giving now it a little. bit goes a long way down there yes uh. and in the meantime while you're looking. up cooperative for education.org. ysk you can also send us an email send. it off to stuff podcast iheartradio.com. [Music]. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart. Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows.

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