Löwenzahn

George has mentioned before how important these little scallies are. They provide the pollen (or whatever) that the bees need. I wanted to post this to show that if the Bavarian farmers have started chopping them down you can always direct your bees across here.

The cool thing is that the German name is a direct translation of the name we use (but not the word if that makes sense?). The English name is dandelion which is derived from the French "dent de lion" or teeth of the lion which, spookily, is how löwenzahn translates - lions' teeth. 

This isn't the only word which works like this, as I'm sure you know. Another good example is fernsehen which is a lovely compound. "Fern" is the same word which Chaucer uses in the 14th line of the prologue to Canterbury Tales. He mentions "ferne halwes" which is generally translated as "distant shrines" and "fern" is distant in German; follow "fernverkehr" signs when driving through town - it means long-distance traffic or "through route". "Sehen" is "seeing" so fernsehen is distance-seeing which is the same as television; tele being Greek for distant and television being Ancient Greek for television which proves that the ancient Greeks invented the TV.

So there you have it!