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恒又问我为什么蒲公英叫 dandelion clock?
Dandelions are tap-rooted biennial or perennial herbaceous plants, native to temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere of the Old World. They are commonly known as weeds or ruderals. The genus is taxonomically very complex, with numerous macrospecies, and polyploidy is also common; over 250 apomictic microspecies have been recorded in the British Isles alone (Richards 1972). Some botanists take a much narrower view and only accept a total of about 60 species.The leaves are 5–25 cm long, simple and basal, entire or lobed, forming a rosette above the central taproot. As the leaves grow outward they push down the surrounding vegetation, such as grass in a lawn, which kills those plants by cutting off their access to sunlight. A bright yellow flower head, which is open in the daytime but closes at night, is borne singly on a hollow stem (scape) which rises 4–30 cm above the leaves and exudes a milky sap (latex) when broken. A rosette may produce several flowering stems at a time. The flower head is 2–5 cm in diameter and consists entirely of ray florets. The flower head matures into a spherical "clock" (also known as a "wishie") containing many single-seeded fruits (achenes). Each achene is attached to a pappus of fine hairs, which enable wind-aided dispersal over long distances.
Dandelions are used as food plants by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).
Origin of the name
The English name dandelion is a corruption of the French dent de lion[2] meaning lion's tooth, referring to the coarsely-toothed leaves. The names of the plant have the same meaning in several other European languages, such as Italian dente di leone, Spanish diente de león, Portuguese dente-de-leão, Norwegian Løvetann, and German Löwenzahn.
In modern French the plant is named pissenlit, which means "urinate in bed", apparently referring to its diuretic properties. Likewise, "pissabeds" is an English folkname for this plant, piscialletto in Italian and in Spanish it is known as the meacamas. Also, in the dialect of Veneto, Italy, it is known as pisacan, which translates to "dog pisses", referring to how common they are found at the side of pavements (source: Giulia Zanetti, native of Veneto), and in the dialect of Novara, Italy, it is known as soffione, which translates to "blowing", and refers to the habit of blowing the seeds from the stalk (source: Silvia Paracchini, native of Novara). Likewise, in Polish it is called "dmuchawiec" which comes from "dmuchać", "to blow".
In Turkish the dandelion is called karahindiba meaning "black endive".
Hungarian names are kutyatej ("dog milk", referring to the white sap found in the stem) and gyermekláncfű ("child's chain grass", referring to the habit of children to pick dandelions, remove the flowers, and make links out of the stems by "plugging" the narrow top end of the stem into the wider bottom end).
Lithuanian name kiaulpienė can be translated as "sow Sonchus" (because plant Sonchus that has white sap also in Lithuanian is pienė (from pienas "milk)) or "sow milk". In Finnish it is called 'voikukka' ("butter flower") referring to its buttery colour. In Swedish it is called 'maskros' ("worm rose"), likely referring to its low status (being mostly considered a weed) despite a fairly pleasant appearance.
据我了解应该是整株植物叫 dandelion。而那个圆形由种子组成的叫 dandelion clock。
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The dandelion's taproot, on left in this drawing, makes this plant very difficult to uproot; the top of the plant breaks away, but the root stays in the ground and can sprout again.
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A dandelion clock
[ 本帖最后由 快乐常随 于 2008-5-25 17:41 编辑 ] |
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