Natural selection seems to have overshot the mark just a little bit, but, as I predicted, last summer I began to see a few green dandelions in my lawn.
Taraxacum officinale viride -- green dandelion. The visitor is a longhorn beetle, Crossidius sp., according to Eric Eaton, author, Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America.
To tell the truth, I photographed the dandelion exactly as it came out of the ground. As a fundamentalist, I cannot accept digital manipulation of photographs beyond what I could do in the darkroom -- dodging, burning, cropping.
In fact, I asked my rabbi to check with God to see how the dandelion evolved so fast, and she said it worked something like a genetic algorithm. But it is still a dandelion.
Oclarki · 1 April 2011
I guess it just goes to show you what may happen when you obtain your mulch from Rocky Flats.
Seriously, now, these new green hybrids could be a bonanza in the brewing of absinthe rather than the old, yellowish dandelion wine of yore.
Pete Moulton · 2 April 2011
Ha! I was beginning to wonder if anyone else would remember Dandelion Wine. Your rabbi must be right, Matt. God made that color just because it complements the long-horned beetle so well.
John Vreeland · 2 April 2011
If you didn't use Gimp or Photoshop you should have. This manipulation is awful. It is, literally, a bad paint job. I am curious as to why it looks so fluorescent, however.
John Vreeland · 2 April 2011
DavidK said:
Seriously, now, these new green hybrids could be a bonanza in the brewing of absinthe rather than the old, yellowish dandelion wine of yore.
DavidK said:
Seriously, now, these new green hybrids could be a bonanza in the brewing of absinthe rather than the old, yellowish dandelion wine of yore.
Taraxacum-Artemisia hybrids?
No, the green is achieved through watering the dandelions with absinthe.
Pete Moulton said: Ha! I was beginning to wonder if anyone else would remember Dandelion Wine.
Years ago a neighbor paid the local kids to pick dandelions for dandelion wine. He literally stuffed a five-gallon crock with dandelion heads within 24 hours, added some sugar and boiling water and lemon juice and let the mess sit for a few days. The filtrate looked like it could have been used for making yellow magic markers.
William Safire once made a distinction between serious and solemn. Kennedy, if I remember correctly, was serious; Nixon was solemn. Obama is serious; Boehner is solemn. I am serious; those who do not like garishly colored dandelions are solemn.
Crudely Wrott · 3 April 2011
I've not seen a green one yet, nor one feeding a Longhorn. I'll keep an eye out though, just in case. Thanks for the heads up.
BTW, I think it's normally the course of action that beetles such as the one shown are put in the bottle as well to give it added flavor, ala Tequila, no? Yummy.
Pierce R. Butler · 4 April 2011
All this being as good an excuse as I'm likely to find this month to bring up a question from a recent conversation with a friend:
Why is it that natural selection gives us a few (all tropical?) green birds, some green insects, many green reptiles, but no (or maybe a few extremely rare) green mammals?
Henry J · 4 April 2011
Maybe hair biochemistry isn't conducive to green pigment?
Henry J said:
Maybe hair biochemistry isn't conducive to green pigment?
IANABiochemist, but if green can be done in scales and feathers (not to mention leaves & such), mammals can't be let off the hook quite so easily...
Forgive me, great lords of the Ranidae, for my earlier failure to praise the abundant verdancy of amphibians!
harold · 4 April 2011
Years ago a neighbor paid the local kids to pick dandelions for dandelion wine. He literally stuffed a five-gallon crock with dandelion heads within 24 hours, added some sugar and boiling water and lemon juice and let the mess sit for a few days. The filtrate looked like it could have been used for making yellow magic
Did he add yeast? This is a serious question. I take an interest in that type of beverage. Where I grew up, hard cider was made by crusty old coots who squeezed the juice out of unpeeled, unwashed apples. That is a traditional method, and you don't need to add yeast, because there is sufficient yeast on the skin of the apples that proper fermentation is nearly always the result. This was done by people who had small, unsprayed apple orchards on their property for personal use. However, the Norman way of making cider is to add measured yeast, which gives a superior ability to control the process, but slightly different flavor.
Dandelion wine is basically fermented sugar water and what the dandelions provide is bittering flavor and maybe a few trace nutrients for the yeast, that I knew. I thought the yeast had to be added, but maybe some people relied on wild yeast.
27 Comments
Glen Davidson · 1 April 2011
The Red Heifer can't be more than a few days off by now.
Unless your lawn is near Fukushima. Then I'd say all bets are off.
Glen Davidson
chris from ohio · 1 April 2011
You need to work on your photoshopping - this one was obvious!
Matt Young · 1 April 2011
Reports that I used Photoshop are exaggerated.
digibud · 1 April 2011
If you're going to use Photoshop to select yellow and replace it with bright green then at least do a decent job of it on this important day! Sheesh!
Karen S. · 1 April 2011
It's still a dandelion. But I'll admit it acquired blue information.
perpetualstudent · 1 April 2011
"Reports that I used Photoshop are exaggerated."
Yeah, I agree. GIMP is way better than Photoshop.
Matt Young · 1 April 2011
Reports that I used Gimp are equally exaggerated.
xander · 1 April 2011
Cubist · 1 April 2011
I like the Suspiciously Specific Denial (as TYTropes would call it), Matt...
Kevin B · 1 April 2011
My colleague, who has a biology degree, tells me that a lettuce is a sort of dandelion.
Matt Young · 1 April 2011
MS Paint! Bite your tongue!
To tell the truth, I photographed the dandelion exactly as it came out of the ground. As a fundamentalist, I cannot accept digital manipulation of photographs beyond what I could do in the darkroom -- dodging, burning, cropping.
In fact, I asked my rabbi to check with God to see how the dandelion evolved so fast, and she said it worked something like a genetic algorithm. But it is still a dandelion.
Oclarki · 1 April 2011
I guess it just goes to show you what may happen when you obtain your mulch from Rocky Flats.
DavidK · 1 April 2011
Seriously, now, these new green hybrids could be a bonanza in the brewing of absinthe rather than the old, yellowish dandelion wine of yore.
Pete Moulton · 2 April 2011
Ha! I was beginning to wonder if anyone else would remember Dandelion Wine. Your rabbi must be right, Matt. God made that color just because it complements the long-horned beetle so well.
John Vreeland · 2 April 2011
If you didn't use Gimp or Photoshop you should have. This manipulation is awful. It is, literally, a bad paint job.
I am curious as to why it looks so fluorescent, however.
John Vreeland · 2 April 2011
Stanton · 2 April 2011
Paul Burnett · 2 April 2011
Matt Young · 2 April 2011
William Safire once made a distinction between serious and solemn. Kennedy, if I remember correctly, was serious; Nixon was solemn. Obama is serious; Boehner is solemn. I am serious; those who do not like garishly colored dandelions are solemn.
Crudely Wrott · 3 April 2011
I've not seen a green one yet, nor one feeding a Longhorn. I'll keep an eye out though, just in case. Thanks for the heads up.
DavidK · 3 April 2011
BTW, I think it's normally the course of action that beetles such as the one shown are put in the bottle as well to give it added flavor, ala Tequila, no? Yummy.
Pierce R. Butler · 4 April 2011
All this being as good an excuse as I'm likely to find this month to bring up a question from a recent conversation with a friend:
Why is it that natural selection gives us a few (all tropical?) green birds, some green insects, many green reptiles, but no (or maybe a few extremely rare) green mammals?
Henry J · 4 April 2011
Maybe hair biochemistry isn't conducive to green pigment?
Mike Elzinga · 4 April 2011
That reminds me of the chlorophyll craze somewhere back in the 1950s.
Chlorophyll was supposed to cure everything from bad breath to body odor.
SWT · 4 April 2011
Pierce R. Butler · 4 April 2011
harold · 4 April 2011