Seeds Across the Land

It is amazing that something so common and plentiful like the dandelion is so loaded with myth, meaning, and apparently, medicine. While many people nowadays see dandelions as a weed, they’ve been used in both medicine and cooking for centuries. Its botanical name Taraxacum officinale tells us they were once kept in an officina, or storeroom, by monks and used for medicinal purposes to alleviate kidney problems or indigestion. You can make a salad with its leaves, and you can make honey and wine with the flowers while some have in fact dried and ground the root to use as a coffee substitute. Dandelions open and close according to light levels. They are also believed to close if rain is coming, which could explain why they’re called the ‘rustic oracle’ by some. As we all know, dandelions have two distinct stages, the bright yellow flowering stage, which some people say represents the sun, and the fluffy seed head stage, which some say represents the moon. Its seeds are said to represent the stars when they scatter into the air.

Perhaps the most obvious folklore association with dandelions links them with wishing. Some say that your wish will only come true if you blow all of the seeds off in one breath. You can also think of a message for a loved one, and then blow on a seed head in their direction to send them the message. Seemingly the character painted on the bottom right-hand corner of Robin Henry and Reilly Knowles’ mural at 680 Dundas Street is doing just that. It is fitting that the artists chose to place the figure here as they dedicated their mural to the memory of Amara Hollow Bones, a beloved personage in the LGBTQ2S+ community who passed away while they were painting the mural. Perhaps she is depicted in blue to resonate with the moon, her wishes of love and peace emanating through the night sky. The black background of this mural undoubtedly invites the figure, flowers, vines, stars, and dandelion cosmic trail to really pop out visually while yet undergirding the gravitas of mourning and celebration.

Image sourced from the Tourism London website, https://www.londontourism.ca/murals