Where have all the Dandelions gone??

Your Blogress is absolutely not a gardener nor a botanist. I can recognize Dandelions, though, which is why I have noticed that rather than dandelions, there is a different kind of yellow flower springing up all over the place. My gardener expert tells me that it is a "hawkweed."
It's amazing where a simple question can lead one. In this case, having asked, and not really answered, "where have all the Dandelions gone?", the very pretty hawkweed has captured my interest. And what should I find??? It is an Aster, with an official name, "Variety Hieracium gracile Hook. var. yukonense Porsild."

PORSILD. That is Ellen Davignon's maiden name. You know, Ellen Davignon who works at Mac's Fireweed, and wrote wonderful columns in the newspaper, and a book with "Cinnamon Bun" in the title. With a little rummaging in Google, it turns out that Ellen's uncle was Alf Erling Porsild, a very famous biologist. With his brother (Ellen's father), he studied the grazing potential of reindeer in northern Canada.

His biography states that, "Erling returned to Ottawa in 1935 and started to turn out a stream of publications based on his studies of the boreal American flora. In the following year he was appointed Acting Chief Botanist at the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa. In 1946 he became Chief Botanist at the National Museum of Canada, a position which he held until he retired in 1967. He was awarded a great many honours, one being Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America. His life was a saga of unique experiences and accomplishments. Erling Porsild died in Vienna on 13 November 1977. His older brother, Robert, died a few weeks later at his home in Whitehorse, Y.T. - on 30 December."