Not a Dandelion...

...but a Crepis or Hawksbeard. It is related to the aster family as opposed to the sunflower from which the dandelion hails. My Wikipedia reference gives details that left me cross-eyed and none the wiser about the differences between the two.  Salsify also has a similar seed head, only bigger. Crepis comes from the Greek krepis meaning slipper, whereas dandelion is a corruption of the French dent de lion  or lion's tooth. Frankly, I don't see the resemblance of either to their name, but I'm also not a taxonomist and was simply enjoying my leisurely Spike walk up the hill when I realized that the wildflowers were going to seed and perhaps summer really is arriving.

Speaking of taxonomists, I am reminded of my friend Alice, whose father was a rather well known botanical taxonomist. He was always off in the jungle somewhere searching for a rare orchid, but Alice was clearly very fond of him and loved telling stories about his eccentricities. She once gave him a three yard long licorice rope (he loved licorice) and every day he allowed himself exactly one inch....He was a hoarder, and Alice and her mother were slowly being moved out of house and home by all of his stuff. It appeared  be a lot of things he felt he might one day have a use for, and if the need for something specific ever arose, he knew exactly where to find it. Since he was gone most of the time, I would have thought Alice and her mother would have taken advantage of his absences to clear out all the stuff he had accumulated and liberate the spaces it had taken over, but they seemed to be quite tolerant of the status quo.


We have had a lovely day of warm weather and are about to take advantage of a warm evening to sit outside for our glass of wine.