Till maskrosens lov

Tre pojkar med ränsel

de ser hundviol

och samlar.

Jag hör hund som skäller

och min näsa luktar

morgon.

Som i Linnaeusvåren

maskros hundviol stellaria

vårbjörklöv och älskog.

Sol

på harsyrblad och blommens fjun.

                                     ur Kiri-ra! 

                                                 av Gunnar Björling

"Pine Trees and Dandelions in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital" 

Vincent Van Gogh

Många är de konstnärer, diktare och författare som låtit sig inspireras av den glada och nyttiga maskrosen. Jag kom att tänka på det i dag när maskrosfjunen snöade över nejden, så det såg ut som ett julkort. Ibland kallas den kusblomma och ibland gullborste, vilket bara är ett par av dess dialektala namn, andra äldre namn är lejontand, äggblomster, smörblomster, munkhuvud, skallnacke och kopiss. Både ordet kuse och mask användes förr om ohyra av olika slag, och först 1802 förekommer ordet maskros i tryck, då i "Svensk botanik".

Dandelions

Isaak Iljitsch Lewitan

How happy I was! I don't remember any time quite so perfect since the days when I was too little to do lessons and was turned out with sugar on my eleven o'clock bread and butter on to a lawn closely strewn with dandelions and daisies. The sugar on the bread and butter has lost its charm, but I love the dandelions and daisies even more passionately now than then, and never would endure to see them all mown away if I were not certain that in a day or two they would be pushing up their little faces again as jauntily as ever. During those six weeks I lived in a world of dandelions and delights. The dandelions carpeted the three lawns,-- they used to be lawns, but have long since blossomed out into meadows filled with every sort of pretty weed,-- and under and among the groups of leafless oaks and beeches were blue hepaticas, white anemones, violets, and celandines in sheets. The celandines in particular delighted me with their clean, happy brightness, so beautifully trim and newly varnished, as though they too had had the painters at work on them. Then, when the anemones went, came a few stray periwinkles and Solomon's Seal, and all the birdcherries blossomed in a burst. And then, before I had a little got used to the joy of their flowers against the sky, came the lilacs--masses and masses of them, in clumps on the grass, with other shrubs and trees by the side of walks, and one great continuous bank of them half a mile long right past the west front of the house, away down as far as one could see, shining glorious against a background of firs. When that time came, and when, before it was over, the acacias all blossomed too, and four great clumps of pale, silvery-pink peonies flowered under the south windows, I felt so absolutely happy, and blest, and thankful, and grateful, that I really cannot describe it. My days seemed to melt away in a dream of pink and purple peace.

Prydlig pärlemorfjäril

Insekter och fåglar i största allmänhet, och pärlemorfjärilar i synnerhet, gillar att festa på maskrosnektar ― så vårda dina maskrosor! Hela plantan går att äta, och är till på köpet smockfull av vitaminer (A, C och K) och nyttigheter som kalk, kalium, järn och mangan.

The Dandelion Clock 

H William John Hennessy 

 Every child knows how to tell the time by a dandelion clock. You blow till the seed is all blown away, and you count each of the puffs—an hour to a puff. Every child knows this, and very few children want to know any more on the subject. It was Peter Paul’s peculiarity that he always did want to know more about everything; a habit whose first and foremost inconvenience is that one can so seldom get people to answer one’s questions.

Och vem har inte gjort kedjor av maskrosstjälkar, något som inte var så uppskattat av våra mammor, eftersom mjölksaften ger fula fläckar på kläderna. En saft som man förresten kan göra gummi av.

“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.” 

                                                                            Suzanne Collins