CARBONDALE, Colo. (AP) -- Hold the herbicides and pass the dandelions. The scraggly weed with the yellow flower is the official bloom of Carbondale.
Town trustees say the dandelion is better eaten than yanked up and tossed aside as rubbish."The dandelion is in. As far as we know, we're the only city in the country to have the dandelion as the town flower," said dandelion backer John "Doc" Philip.
Before this week's vote, trustees sipped roasted dandelion root "coffee" brewed by the town's environmental board. Trustee Fred Williams thinks that didn't hurt the vote.
"It was great. It tasted like instant coffee," he said.
The board has staged dandelion cookoffs, wine contests and digging competitions. It persuaded trustees last year to stop spraying dandelions in parks and urged the town's 5,000 residents to eat rather than spray dandelions on their property.
Besides, eating dandelions does away with them where they're unwelcome.