Expedition Dandelion    


Your mission:

Go for a walk in your neighbourhood/garden

Prepare to go out – you will need:


•    Appropriate shoes, a jacket and hat
•    A phone, or a camera and/or your eyes
•    A bag to collect specimens
•    A field note book to make records (paper and pencil)

Dandelion ID

Make sure you can identify a dandelion – check out the lesson on Dandelions first


To do:

Walk carefully, looking where you are going. Look to see where the dandelions are.

1. Record: where you find them
In the grass? By the side of the path? In the undergrowth ? In cracks in the pavement /road ?


2. Look: for stages in the lifecycle

Flower bud? Open flower? Seed head (dandelion clock)?


3. Look for creatures visiting the flowers and record what they are.
If you don’t know, try and describe it/them


4. Collect: (when you collect please avoid ones that could have been peed on by dogs)

1) A leaf from a number of different dandelions
2) Some flowers with stalks
3) A seed head

When you get home WASH YOUR HANDS


Dandelion activities


1. Marley’s invisible dandelion ink!

Pick a dandelion. Look at the stem, a white liquid or sap will be oozing out. This white liquid is called latex. Latex is also found in rubber trees and is used for making rubber. You can use this white sap as an invisible ink!
Draw or write something on a piece of paper using the stem sap.
It will be very difficult to read. Leave to dry and your picture or message will then be clear to see!

2. Magic dandelion spirals

Flick the head off a dandelion.
Slit the stem lengthwise into several long strips. Put the stem pieces in water and watch as they magically curl into tight spirals.

Question: Why does a dandelion stem curl?
Answer: One side of the stem pieces absorbs more water than the other and the cells expand faster, causing the stem to curl up into a tight coil.

3. Dandelion dissection

Pull the ‘flower’ in half and take each little flower petal out - stick them on to a piece of paper.


Last modified: Tuesday, 2 May 2023, 6:55 PM