Dandelions

My current collections project is about the Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) which was introduced to North America by Europeans. I’m using this settler plant as both a marker and a proxy for human settlers on the land now known as Canada. Project description.

Work in Progress. Screen print. Detail wall mural. Image 1597 woodcut from Gerard’s Herbal, London
Detail wall mural
Settlers in the grass plots

Work in progress. First recorded Dandelion herbarium samples in Canada. Montreal 1821, Whitehorse 1947, Belchers Island 2010.

WEST COAST

Before drum seining started in the 1950s, salmon fishers in B.C. could only hand-pull 5 nets in a day. Using this hydraulic drum, they can now pull in up to 25 nets a day. – Sign #4 Stevenson, B.C. Fishers Walk. Subsistence fishing “other than sport fishing, is carried out primarily to feed the family and relatives of the person doing the fishing. In Canada, the term also applies to First Nations fisheries for food and ceremonial purposes.”  World Fisheries Trust

Sasquatch
Meets
Dandelion

NORTHERN CANADA (YUKON)

Tombstone Territorial Park parking lot
Let’s go for a walk
Leave no trace

Top: Rebecca Spit Provincial Park, Quadra Island, BC. (Sculpture’s artist wishes to remain unknown), 2026; Above: Dempster Highway, YK, 2025 at Tombstone Territorial Park: Below: Near Nanton, AB, July 2025: A Dandelion cousin – Goat’s Beard (Tragopogon pratensis). Copyright all photos: Nandy Heule.

CENTRAL CANADA (PRAIRIES)

NATIONAL

Below: Taraxacum officinale isn’t an invasive non-native species but (almost) always spotted along paths where humans travel on protected lands. iNaturalist lists over 21,000 observations across Canada. Photo collection: Wildflowers Meet Dandelions.

Nootka Lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis)

Acknowledgements and selected sources for this project:

  • Special thanks in chronological order:
  • Curator Krista Broecks for invaluable curatorial feedback, 2024
  • SAW workshop on non-colonial, fluid mapping in Ottawa, ON, 2024
  • Dr. Heather Kharouba, PhD, and speakers at the Crossing Boundaries Symposium, U of Ottawa, May 2025. This symposium facilitated multidisciplinary collaborations between artists, scientists, & engineers to address climate change.
  • Jennifer Doubt, Curator (Botany), National Herbarium of Canada, Canadian Museum of Nature, 2025
  • Shannon Asencio, Collections Manager, National Collection of Vascular Plants, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Images from this collection ©His Majesty The King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada, 2025
  • Kara Matthews, Horticulturalist, Coutts Centre for Western Canadian Heritage, Nanton, AB. 2025
  • Lyndsey Sharp, Assistant Collection Manager. Botany. National Herbarium of Canada, Canadian Museum of Nature, 2025
  • Staff at the Special Collections Department, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, ON, 2026
  • Iris Sautier, Master Printer, La Bourgeoise Sérigraphe Inc, Montreal, QC., 2026
  • Head Interpreter Jamie Lee and Collections Manager Heidi Rampfl at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a National Historic Site in Richmond, BC, 2026
  • Selected Resources:
  • Arber, Agnes. Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution. A Chapter in the History of Botany 1470-1670. Cambridge University Press, 1912.
  • Basciano, Rebecca et. al., curators, Faith Fyles: In Full Bloom Exhibition, 2026, at the Ottawa Art Gallery. Curatorial statements on herbaria collections, Indigenous ways of knowing and botanical art.
  • Campbell, K. Mack. Cannery Village: Company Town. A History of BC’s Outlying Salmon Canneries, Trafford Publishing, Victoria, BC, 2004,
  • Emily. The Letters of Emily Dickinson. C.Miller, D. Mitchell, eds. Belknap Press, 2024
  • Gerarde, John. The Herball – Or, Generall Historie of Plantes, London, 1597. Digital Copy at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON,
  • Kimmerer Wall, Robin. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, Milkweed Editions, 2013
  • Macdougall, Jane. Weeds in a Bouquet? Why Not? Globe and Mail, Aug 12, 2025
  • Sanchez, Anita. The Teeth of the Lion: The Story of the Beloved and Despised Dandelion. Perfect Paperback, 2006
  • Tomic, Milena PhD. Course materials related to the history of printmaking at OCAD U, Toronto, 2020
  • Global Biodiversity Information Facility
  • Invasive species and noxious weeds lists from non-profit organizations and Canadian provincial governments. This includes lists by Nature Conservancy of Canada, Canadian Coalition for Invasive Plant Regulation, Ontario Invasive Plants Council, provincial noxious weeds lists in BC, Alberta and Ontario. https://www.ontario.ca/page/noxious-weeds-ontario.
  • Wildflower field guides, including my go-to guide Wildflowers Northeastern/Northcentral North America by Roger Tory Peterson/Margaret McKenny
  • Trelawny, John G. Wildflowers of the Yukon & Northwestern Canada. 3rd edition. Harbour Publishing, 2009.