The humble dandelion.
Dandelions are flowering herbs usually belonging to the genus Taraxacum. They are native to Eurasia and North America and are named for the shape of their leaves, which somewhat resemble lions’ teeth. They have yellow flowers, and are famous for their hairy flying seeds.
Commonly regarded as a weed to be removed from one’s garden or vegetable patch, the dandelion is in fact very useful. The leaves, roots, and flowers are edible, and the plant has been a part of many traditional recipies across its native range. In the Carpathian basin for example, the leaves were eaten fresh in spring and the flowers were eaten raw or used to make a kind of flower wine (Dénes, et al, 2012, p. 383). In Britain, dandelions are a part of the traditional drink ‘Dandelion and Burdock’, which has been drunk in one form or another for several hundred years, and the roots too can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute, which apparently tastes quite nice (Moodie, 1854, p. 90).
The first record of the plant being used as a medicine comes from the middle east around 1000 years ago, although it has been used as a medicine by other societies since then, including European, Chinese, and North American aboriginal traditional medicine (Clare, Conroy & Spelman, 2009; Schütz, Carl & Schieber, 2006). A study from 2009 found that after taking a dandelion-derived solution, there was a statistically significant increase in the frequency of urination in the participants (Clare, Conroy & Spelman, 2009), which helps to explain the French name for the plant (pissenlit). It has also been prescribed to treat liver and spleen ailments, hepatitis, anorexia, kidney disease, diabetes, and as a treatment for cancer, as well as used as an anti inflammatory (Sweeny, et al, 2005); the usefulness of the plant to treat these ailments has been described as unclear or conflicting, however (ibid, p. 81).
On top of its use as a food and medicine, the Soviets also had a special use for it.
During the WWII, owing to a shortage in the supply of rubber, the Soviet Union was tasked with creating its own supply. To this end, scientists conducted trials of over 1100 plants to test natural latex production, and they found that the Russian dandelion (Taraxacum koksaghyz) was most suitable for cultivation. After some selective breeding, the Soviets were able to get as much as 200 kg of natural rubber per hectare of dandelion (van Beilen & Poirier, 2007, p. 227) and at one point, domestically produced dandelion-derived rubber accounted for 30% of the USSR’s rubber consumption, though the project was eventually cancelled when Hevea brasiliensis-derived rubber became affordable again (ibid).
Interest in alternative sources of rubber has since renewed, and cultivation of T.koksaghyz has begun again in Germany for tyre production, with initial results being promising (McGovan, 2021).
You know me- I’m a tree man, myself. However, I was reading up about this the other day, and decided that you should all know about it.
The tree posting will resume in my next mega!
References
van Beilen, J.B & Poirier, Y. (2007) ‘Guayule and Russian Dandelion as Alternative Sources of Natural Rubber.’ Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 27(4), 217-231.
Clare, B.A; Conroy, R.S. & Spelman, K. (2009) ‘The Diuretic Effect in Human Subjects of an Extract of Taraxacum Offinale Folium Over a Single Day.’ Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 15(8), 929-934.
Dénes, A; Papp, N; Babai, D; Czúcz, B. & Mólnár, Z. (2012) ‘Wild plants used for food by Hungarian ethnic groups living in the Carpathian Basin.’ Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae, 81(4), 381-396.
McGovan, J. (2021) ‘Could Rubber from Dandelions make Tires More Sustainable?’ DW, March 10th. https://tinyurl.com/2sdspsm7
Moodie, S. (1854) Roughing it in the Bush; Or, Life in Canada. New York: George P Putnam.
Schutz, K; Carle, R & Schieber, A. (2006) ‘Taraxacum – a Review on its phytochemical and pharmacological profile.’ Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 117(3), 313-323.
Sweeney, B; Vora, M; Ulbricht, C. & Basch, E. (2005). ‘Evidence-Based Systematic Review of Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) by Natural Standard Research Collaboration.’ Journal of Herbal Pharmacotherapy, 5(1), 79–93.
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This is the new mega. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Its name is dandelion.
I'm pushing this one out early because I have work tomorrow morning.
Enjoy!
No problem, I like talking about plants. Thanks for wishing me luck at work too, but it's a fairly easy job and I like the people there, so it's no real hardship!
Turns out Mao was right. If you see somebody do something fucked up, you should call them out on it. Here I am months later regretting that I didn't say anything
Every few months we get a months-old account here that gets upset about "tankies". I really wonder how you can post on here for several months before wondering "damn it, where are all these tankies coming from".
Funny leftist jokes online :dean-smile:
Leftism in actual practice :dean-frown:
i was furiously trying to reply to some people on the last megathread until i released it was locked.. :sadness:
Feeling real bad. Watched the news coverage in this shit outta buffalo and I’m so down.
Cried tears of frustration in front of my girl and I was able to vent. But holy shit do I feel small rn. I dunno how else to describe this feeling.
Guess I’m posting in the only other place where I might find similar minds :deeper-sadness:
Hi! This is a new account for opsec reasons.
I'm in a union that's swayable left and already Bernie-friendly. It's large enough to have full-time paid organizers and several committees that focus on distinct focuses. I'm on several and slightly influential. One of them is a very small committee with an electoralism focus.
This committee uses a dumb lib process to hand out endorsements like candy based on very little info and without distinguishing candidates by their pasts or by interviewing them or by saying, "hey, what are you going to do for us (you piece of shit)?". I don't like it. It's lib shit and imo weakens our union since there's clearly zero leverage from such a process and it's stupidly easy to just pander and pass the litmus test.
My question is about this: I'd like to change how this works. The committee is small, so I could just take it over with a few comrades but I think that's disruptive and hurts trust and connections in the unit. Instead, I'm thinking of pushing hard to move this process to be membership-focused, where this committee does work to support membership-facing work, like hosting interviews to which at actively work to turn out wider membership, prepare questions with membership, and actively seek a set of demands for candidates from membership. Membership is not socialist, but at least this process would make endorsements an act of both flexing and increasing our power and flow from workplace democracy.
Does anyone have thoughts on this strategy, the more divisive one I mentioned, or any other strategies? I know that electoralism is already annoying bourgeois democratic shit, but I do think that things like this are a way for a SocDem membership to move closer to an understanding and use of worker power, that a union isn't just a bureaucracy of other people.
Bumping for visibility but also adding the Wobbly Manual: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/industrial-workers-of-the-world-iww-organizing-manual
:iww:
Favorite genre of hip hop is always "I ain't racist, I fuck ever single ethnicity of woman" untouchable galaxy brained energy
Just saw an archetypal himbo reading a physical book at the local outdoor gym. Dudes rock
My boss came to me today to talk about how baffled he is of his nephew being flamboyant and showed me a pic of him at school in a maid outfit with black nail polish
I wanted to be like damn dude do you not realize who you're talking to
Remember when the IDF blew up the AP office in Gaza
, killing every Journalist present,and AP just went directly back to simping for Israel?Is this another time they blew up a news office? Im sure I remember there being (supposedly?) no deaths, they were very clear about having evacuated the building (with only an hour to spare). maybe was al jazeera? last year or year before
Edit both agencies were housed in the same building. Israel claims Hamas was "developing electronic jamming equipment" to be used against iron dome in the same building. Theres no proof of that, only that they struck the building.
A month later and israeI is using 'they retaliated against our airstrikes with incendiary balloons (helium balloons, an oily rag and a fuse delayed by a cigarette)' as pretext for more airstrikes.
So yknow, there were no deaths in the particular strike that destroyed the building housing AP and Al Jazeera, but that's not saying a whole lot either