Dandelions...
* Eat them. Certain varieties, usually the long-stemed ones, are used as salad greens, soups, wines, and teas. When cooking, blanch them or saute them to make them more tasty.
* The roasted root is used as a coffee substitute. It's caffeine-free.
* It's one of the ingredients of root beer.
* Provides nectar and pollen for bees and some butterflies.
* Adds nitrogen to the soil.
* Dandelion is an herb used for many conditions, such as loss of appetite, upset stomach, intestinal gas, gallstones, joint pain, muscle aches, eczema, and bruises, laxative, skintoner, blood tonic, and digestive tonic, virus, cancer.