There’s been a lot since the last update. More, eventually, on that later. For now, I found a story I wrote and illustrated when I was younger. I hope you enjoy!
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[It happened in just this way.
A bird sang in the night before the dawning, glistening crisp notes like fresh dew beneath moonlight.
A bird sang in the night before the dawning, stirring the sleeping dreamers beneath the scrub brush, causing one to turn over and stretch long limbs, glimpsing the shadows closed around tightly as warm hugs.
A bird sang in the night before the dawning, calling the early secret frothy clouds to gather together so that the sun, when she rose would appear behind her veils in demure grace, to hide her shyness this morning.
At the far corner of the sky, the moon collapsed all blowsy bleary into the cushions etched by the long mountains to sleep away the daylight.]
(And I did see a couple of grammatical and punctuation things after I posted this, but I’m keeping them as is because that’s part of the protocol I have for these little books. Embrace the mistakes!!!)
Stay safe, stay healthy, wash hands and love one another!!!
Once
Upon
A
Time….
BECAUSE IT’S IMPORTANT
To quote : “…the 3 most important things are:
– Wash your hands (properly)
You can sing the alphabet song twice, if you can’t think of anything else.
And beyond how long you wash, remember! Missing places during handwashing can lead to a false sense of security and germs spreading.
Also, Guys?? …. Please wash your hands when you go to the bathroom AT ALL. I know a lot of you just. touch the toilet seats or wherever, do your business and walk away. Please stop doing that. It’s gross anyway and it’s REALLY unsanitary.
– Don’t touch your face (it’s harder than you think)
– Disinfect your phone (COVID19 can likely live up to 96 hours on phone screens)
Social distancing is also being strongly recommended.”
Business Insider Reports, Updated as of March 16, 2020 at 4:00 pm EST
I would also like to say, regardless of your political views;
the measures health officials are suggesting are NOT for YOU in all likelihood.
These efforts are to keep people you care about safe, such as family or friends who, for one reason or another, are in a life or death situation because of their health and or age. People like my brother, who still hasn’t had either the chicken pox vaccine or chicken pox because of medical reasons, or our neighborhood grandmother, or your mentors, or….. (the list goes on. You know a lot of people. So do I.)
Washing your hands?
Keeps your friends and coworkers safe, because you aren’t bringing the germs to them! This helps their friends and families also, because you aren’t sharing through your friend to their niece or… (etc)
Not touching your face?
Good way to help ensure that even if you’re
asymptomatic (not showing symptoms, but still carrying the virus)
the germs don’t spread to your elderly family or friends who take
immunosuppressants (drugs that make your immune response less)
because they have long term health conditions, or are in the middle of an organ transplant.
Don’t touch your face, your great aunt will thank you.
Disinfect your phone?
I feel like I don’t need to explain how germs can stick to things like your phone from other surfaces and basically couch surf their way to your eyes and mouth when you use your phone. Or laptop. Cleaning off these surfaces really helps to make sure all the hard work you’re doing to keep hands clean and away from your face isn’t wasted when you text your friends that you are planning on becoming a hermit until this situation settles down.
You aren’t a hero if you force yourself to go to work when you’re sick.
If you are unable to work from home, or take time off, I’m so sorry. It’s a no-win situation and I really hope we get a vaccine for you especially soon.
If you can work from home and aren’t, ….. why????
John Oliver made his Coronavirus II video in order to inform us about government efforts, and issues we need to watch for, and Actions We Can Take.
Stay healthy and think of other people if you can ~ not everyone has the ability to shrug it off, and even though I know I’m in the age bracket that I should be fine, there are other medical reasons for me to worry. And also I keep having awful fears that anyone I contact will catch something from me that I didn’t know I was carrying, and it will really hurt them….
Welp. That should about do it.
Stay safe!!!!!!! Be kind to people, and think about who you’re impacting, not so much who’s impacting you 😀
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I live with mental illness. It’s kind of a constant battle of good days, better days, and days when, as I’ve heard some youtubers put it, the bits of my brain I’m against just… win. It’s not that I’m not trying, that I don’t care, or that I can’t do things at all, it’s just that at this time, I’m not able to do the things I really want to do.
And I’m having problems with that. I’m working on accepting that I can’t change certain things, just my reactions to them; learning ways to slow my system down so I don’t helicopter off into the stress-osphere, and trying to be okay that some days getting out of bed before noon is the accomplishment that I need to be okay with. I’m working on putting things in my life on hold, because I don’t want to give them up but know I don’t have the physical ability to do everything. I’m looking at my life and figuring out where I can set myself up for success and not for relapse.
I’m not there at acceptance, yet.
[Despite some very wise words from my dad, who has the benefit of practicing zen buddhism to help give me advice from.]
[Full credit, because it’s been making some parts of this process more doable and I am very grateful.]
[Incidentally, these are photos from Hakubai in Boulder, which is a practicing Zen Buddhist site and very, very beautifully and lovingly maintained]
So, why am I here, writing a post, when there are a million and one other things for me to do?
It kind of felt like the right place to try to make something of a resolution.
October is lovingly known as Preptober by participants of the National Novel Writing Month.
While artists all around make some crazy good art for their Inktober, writers and participants of Nanowrimo take October to prepare for the month-long insanity that November induces.
If you are a Plotter style writer, it’s time to lovingly draft out the arcs of your characters, plotlines, research and file away information in a way you can get to, draft journals or use online sites like Scrivener (which I have heard good things about and know nothing about personally), or World Anvil (another one I’ve heard good things about and know nothing about), or even use things like tabletop character sheets from D&D, Exalted, Traveller, or any number of other ways; and if you’re a Pantser style writer, you come up with a vague idea to start, maybe some characters or world details, and do your best to clear everything else out of your schedule because who knows what’s going to come out of you.
Typically, I’m a Pantser. This year, I’m doing a lot more Plotting, because I’ve already tried to write this particular novel before and I have some ideas of what doesn’t work, and what I’d like to try instead. I’m also doing more Plotting because one of my grad school classes this semester is a novel workshop, and this is the novel that I want to get through so I can have some peer reviews and also maybe the chance of figuring out not only how to get done but who to send it to when it is done, and maybe then I’ll have a book! or something resembling one.
Instead of this feeling like an additional task, set for me by the gods of overbooking and crash&burning, this is actually one of the things that I’m actually really looking at and trying to do as a method of getting me back out of this depression I’m in, and back onto my feet. I was reading a book called “Writing as a Way of Healing“, and in the first nine pages discovered that the best way for me to work my way back out of the depression and back to being healthy is to write myself out of the situation.
**** caveat I am also getting medical help because depression is real and not something I can willpower myself out of****
The thing about writing is that it offers (among many other things):
the ability to write exactly where I’m at and see that my feelings exist and have an impact,
space to look at what I’ve written and see where my brain is lying to me
I can explore different ways or tactics of coping with things that are hard for me/find deeprooted connections I wasn’t aware of/find a way of expressing how I’m feeling other than ‘sad’
and at the end of it all,
there’s writing for someone to look at and maybe also feel something or find a way out of something themselves.
I’m not published so I have only heard that this is how it works from the writer’s perspective, but having read a lot of books, the magic definitely lurks there. I feel connected. I feel like maybe the world isn’t so isolating, that your brain can lie to you and tell you that you are alone, and that the monsters are too big, that your friends don’t like you AND that you’re too tired; but that it can also remind you that monsters can be defeated, that there other people who also don’t want to be alone, and that sometimes you just need to take a break, sleep, dream, and get back up and at it again even if the story in your head is a hard one to overcome.
So here I am, in Preptober. And lo and behold on the Nano website, is a badge for taking care of yourself.
I want to keep that badge.
And there are communities of friends I know I have (shout out to the best writing coven in the world) and ones I’m just meeting (yay grad cohort! and students!) and ones I’m going to meet very soon (possibly even in person if the times work out locally).
Maybe I can’t get my life all together right now, and maybe right now I just need to work on putting one more word on the page every day. I started today with the goal of putting one word more onto my document. And, it’s late, and technically I haven’t done that.
But instead, I finished another step in the process of getting accommodations that I need; I finished grad school work; I GOT PANTS ON AND OUT OF THE HOUSE! ; I posted on the nano boards for the first time ever; and I’ve written a whole long train of thought (WITH IMAGES AND STUFF) on a blog that I struggle to give enough attention to, as well as made dinner for myself and talked to friends about how sometimes things are hard.
I’m not making the progress I necessarily want to be making, right now.
Today, I did a lot more than I thought I would.
And the day’s not quite over yet.
I’m making an announcement here and now to keep myself accountable.
This year, I’m doing my novel writing, and I’m going to make sure that I take care of myself along the way, even when it’s really hard. And 50k or no, I’m going to have more of the writing done and more of the things I want to do also done by the end of November.
I’m writing a novel about a steampunk spaceship named False Paradox, her engineer (Dara Seagraves) and her crew, and their adventures in space.
I’m going to write the future I want to see.
I’m going to write the way I want people to remember to be, because it’s important to remember and move towards.
It’s going to be hopepunk, because even though the world is really hard, and getting up to deal with it every day is crazy, there is still so much beauty that it’s impossible not to keep moving towards that something better. And there are a LOT of people who will tell you (and have argued with me) that it’s pointless, that it’s naive to think such a thing, that everything is dark and hateful and there isn’t a reason to keep doing your best to make even little changes around you, but they are all WRONG.
And if I feel particularly down, or particularly victorious, I might even remember to share how it’s going on here.
Happy Preptober! Happy Nano Season!
Please be safe and well!
I’m currently struggling with mental illness alongside grad school crazies. But I think HelloFutureMe made a very good video about how to write mental illness in fiction, but it also really resonates as ways to interpret and experience media. There are also resources for support for those who need it, and a video of kittens attached if you need a cuteness injection.
Please stay safe and get help if you feel like you’re struggling!
So tight pressure warm — between — thoughts, did you hear here we are have you seen are you hungry who is this?
Shield pressed up to warmth of sun, cold beneath fluid full of prey, of words of change of haste of remembering — this radiance!
Creep through, taste the soil, searching searching, hairs expanding, everyway I taste I taste it tastes of sweet — decay — released power deep in salty granules, forage forage; here
Here I taste strong
Devour my fill
Slowly.
Delicious.
Furl, breathe the night. Uncurl, the sun, small with sinking heat, expansive in the warming day.
Exhale.
This! Pain, what is taking my leaf? It is my own! Change change change remake myself, remake my taste? The way I smell? The leaf still trembles smaller and smaller, enzymes tasting enemy mouth, scissoring parts of my memory – this was when I first sprouted! That is my second grown leaf!
Ask them to come, say the voices in the hunting grounds, ask the others to come and they will. But how? I cry, and wail when again my leaf, my only leaves!
Help me! Come, here is a feast. These hold onto my limbs to be. Come, eat as much as you want. I will shelter you, I know the burn of these compounds now, I know you to avenge my chlorophyll.
But until you arrive — here, to the murderers of my first growth, take these sugar drops on my skin, how sweet; how sweet I am, what kindness, come and eat, come and eat. How you will startle when the ones who bite you come.
At last, relief.
At night relief.
Come hither, carry my pollen. I will offer choice, but first, your mothers, your mothers. They tire me. I would speak to the day instead.
Imagine a longer shape of cup, a brighter color, a different scent; a new perfume to woo a new counterpart. They fly as you might, but daylit, hum as you might but the breeze from their wings does not soothe dusty, their narrow caress limber and fleeting. A fond memory and gone.
Notes:
- Plant roots demonstrate hunting behavior, albeit on a much slower scale. They dig through the soil until they find where nutrients or minerals are more plentiful, then slow their growth until they’re done absorbing. The leaves also track the sun so as to better use sunlight for photosynthesis and will jostle one another for better positioning during the day and as they grow.
- Tomato Hornworm Moths will seek out Wild Tobacco plants to lay their eggs on; while the moths do help the plants pollinate, the caterpillars eat the leaves and can cause the plant to have to kick into defense mode before it gets eaten to death. When the caterpillars bite into the leaves or stems, the enzymes in their saliva interact with the chemicals in the plant. These plants have the ability to use their fragrance to encourage other predators to come in hopes they will eat the caterpillars, and also are able to emit sugary beads on their skin which (when) the caterpillars eat them make the caterpillars smell strongly to their predators. However, when these defenses don’t do the trick, the Wild Tobacco plant is capable of changing the structure, fragrance composition, and timing of its flowers. Over a period of eight days, the plant is able to change from a night blooming, moth attracting, shorter cup-shaped blossom to a day blooming, hummingbird attracting, longer cup-shaped blossom. Scientists are not entirely sure why the plants don’t just make the change permanent, but some theorize that hummingbirds are not consistent enough pollinators to serve the plants needs; the Wild Tobacco can change the flowers back when they choose to, also over an eight day period of time. Scientists are also not entirely sure how the plants are causing this change.
Daughter Vines
Radius
Diameter
Choice
Complexity of breath
Sweet, tangy, sour, bitter.
Tomato.
Yes.
Reach, forage, stretch —
There —
There.
Need. Feed. Attack.
Bite deep. Screams aerosolize.
They taste fresh, taste full, taste strong.
Help me? Help me? No.
I am here. I am
Hungry.
Feed me.
Scream for help — when they come, if they come
It is already too late
I drink your sap, make it mine
I drink your life, make it mine
I grow full, complete
My skin bloats purple
I reach the sun and rest. You will feed me.
Comfortable. Sustain my needs
That I may have daughters of my own.
Notes:
- Dodder Vines are a part of a genus which consists of somewhere between 100-170 species. They are now known to be part of the morning glory family. They like to grow in warmer climates, and only four species are native to the northern parts of Europe. Dodder vines are able to hunt other plants by searching for the odor given off by their future host.
- There are many folk names for dodder vines; strangle tare, lady’s laces, fireweed, wizard’s net, devil’s guts or hair or ringlets, goldthread, hail or hair or scald or strangle or beggarweed, helbine, love vine, pull-down, angel or witch’s hair or witches shoe laces.
- The leaves on dodder are so small and scale like that it seems like there aren’t any at all. They can make small fruits and flowers, and their seeds can survive typically 5-10 years in the soil. This is important because while they can sprout on their own, they do need to find a host plant quickly (5-10 days) after or they will die. When they find a host, they make what are called haustoria which insert and integrate into the vascular system of the host. Each plant can attach to multiple hosts. When the haustoria embed in the host, the spray of plant sap and odor released is equivalent to a human scream; this scent-scream is also best know to us as the smell of freshly cut grass.
- While dodder vines are parasitic, they do also transfer genetic information and chemical reactions which can help multiple hosts respond to herbivorous or disease based attacks by warning those not immediately impacted to being ramping up their defenses.
Fields Forever: Strawberry Song
We live to jump! firmly
push off roots one long step
stem arching like the sky
above until – tap – earth
And so! become again
sister to my sister
daughter after daughter
land and moving again.
Earth grows cold; we share space
in this small world poke leaves
and fruits out to see sun
but no! All’s cold and wet
huddling roots close for warmth
the solid world shell breaks
but not us! Look, we’re still here
in spring. Jumping, skipping
ground to shell, shell to ground
racing along, let’s see
who can reach the farthest
newest dirt and beyond!
Crown over earth, morning
pink blooms blush to berry.
Summer’s sensation’s here
and we all live to jump!
Notes:
- Strawberries create daughter versions of themselves at the end of long stalks, called runners; these stretch further out from the mother plant and, when they are long enough to bend back down to the earth from the weight of the stems, grow roots and leaves at the new contact point. They can do this many times during the growing season, which is partially why they grow in patches and also can cover ground so quickly.
- The ones which grow in our backyard live in two red ceramic strawberry pots which my mother has brought with us as we moved house to house for many years, and now live with me. We planted strawberries in them two summers ago, let them grow and left them be for the winter. Without any care or support from us, they not only survived through the winter but thrived. The pots actually broke apart a bit; they lost the little support cups that we originally planted the strawberries in, but the strawberries don’t seem to have cared because they fruited several times this year. They have come back through their second winter so far and have even been hardy enough to handle the temperature fluctuations like pros. They are very resilient berries.
- Strawberries can be one of three genders; male, female, or hermaphroditic. Male plants produce only pollen, and females can produce fruit from their pollinated flowers, but for either of these genders to reproduce you need to have the other. The hermaphroditic plants are able to self-pollinate to bear fruit. Apparently, there are two different genes which combine to determine the gender of a given plant.
- Strawberry plants tend to grow their leaves in clusters of three to a stem; they do have many stems to one plant, which creates the fullness above ground.
Opining for Conifers
I
survive
everything
I
require fire
to open seed cones
feed small pines with ash
clear complications
old branches, useless limbs, flame
exfoliates I am relieved
carrying needles I spend three years
long, patient growth I build armored bark
around water flowing I drink seasonally when
sun shining warms me I hold carbon and will keep
your energy even I revive and remake
lean and living sapwood I cling to dead heartwood
giving strength I will remember
I
when I grow
older diffuse
store energy sugars
travelling everywhere distant
cousin carbon dated eldest
sustaining acclimating water moving
lipids forming sugars dissolving and still
steady flexible adaptable alive despite
destruction alive and here stand
I
Notes:
- To opine is to explain one’s position or to make an argument but the etymology traces back to the Latin, opinari, to “have an opinion, be of opinion, suppose, conjecture, think, judge” (emphasis added).
- Conifer; earliest known usage from the Latin, meaning “cone-bearing, bearing conical fruit (conus – cone, added to ferre– to bear, carry, as in the root which means ‘to carry’ or ‘bear children’)
- Conifer trees are incredibly resilient, and can be found in some of the most difficult terrains to survive in. Instead of losing leaves every year, like deciduous trees, confers retain their needles for up to three years, which saves the tree energy wasted making and releasing new leaves. This style of growth does require more water and can create more water loss from the leaves respiring; however, the needles are also coated with cutin, which is waxy and helps prevent water from freezing and killing needles. The cutin also keeps snow from accumulating on the branches. Another way to year-round protect their needles and the small and constant photosynthesis they work through, conifers have needle structures that are very close together in order to reduce evaporation. The leaves only hold a small amount of water in them during the winter.
- The movement of water in the trees is also adapted carefully to give conifers an edge in snowy or cold terrain. Conifers have evolved a system where their cell walls are stronger than other trees cells, which helps them to withstand greater pressures of freezing and thawing expansion and compression during winter than other trees. One source records the conifer cell ability to resist pressures up to 900 psi! [Michigan State] They are also able to control the flow of water through their trunk and other places in winter so that instead of hibernating, on warmer days they can restart the system, and on colder ones they can prevent themselves from cells bursting.
- Conifers are also adapted for fire. The cutin is actually flammable, but this is good; as the tree grows older, the lower limbs age, fall into shadow, and become more of an energy drain than a benefit. With wildfires, the lower dead wood is removed and transformed into ash, and other growing things are also cleared out from where the tree is hunting for resources. Some of the conifers specifically design their cones to only open when exposed to intense temperatures, so the seeds will have a better chance of finding soil full of nutrients and room to expand.
- Carbon (and other nutrients) are drawn up through the trunk, and the conifers can produce sugars and lipids from these, but they also stock carbon; when they grow older they have these savings and don’t rely on photosynthesis as much as younger trees do. Trees also absorb radiation; the best known and studied example of this is the Red Forest, where the trees have died from the radiation but remain standing; there are signs of regrowth and the wildlife treating the area as something like a preserve as it is inhabitable, and very slowly the ecosystem is reviving itself. However, there is concern because these trees are steeped and holding all of this radioactivity; when there next comes a fire which burns the red forest, the smoke will kick up all of the absorbed radioactivity. On a smaller and less frightening scale, Suzanne Simard, a professor at the University of British Columbia, has used small amounts of radioactive material to trace how trees share nutrients and ‘talk’ to one another with great success.
- Carbon dating has shown that conifers can be the longest living and oldest trees in the world currently. There is a bristlecone pine in California named Methuselah, who is confirmed to be almost 5,000 years old. The location of Methuselah is actually kept secret for its protection.
- Sapwood is the living wood inside the bark and outer layers of the tree. Heartwood is actually dead wood at the center of the tree which the sapwood encircles. Heartwood is used to support the structure and weight of the tree as it grows, and is therefore essential.
Save
Plum shadows —
Earthshine,
moon faced —
apple peels curl —
rain drips, slow drops
falling silent — soil soaked
persists nevertheless —
seeks alluvial plains,
release
Channels grooved deep,
limnology suggests contained
flow — familiar, fierce,
enduring reptilian confidence
whispering meaningless rainfall,
soothing rivers, banked catfish,
wallowing within waterfalls
false promises: hushed creekwater,
Blossoms open, softly
dreaming honeyed nectar
Suitors floating, humming —
Listen — Invisible signs
beckon discerning eyes, soulful/
alive — pollen written love letters
hovering winds whirl heavenward
Maternal molds — meadows meeting
saplings, springing — strands stand
welcoming cultivation — extension — exploration —
speech sampled — mother tongue —
woven, composing compost
abstractions — growth —
musings — murmurs — daydreams —
limbs stretching sunward
freely
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bibliography/ Further things to read!
Cook, Bill. “How Do Trees Survive in the Winter?” Native Plants and Ecosystem Services, Michigan State University | College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, 4 Oct. 2018, http://www.canr.msu.edu/news/how_do_trees_survive_in_the_winter.
Michigan State has done fascinating research on conifers, including this straightforward article, which includes an explanation on how conifers in particular are able to survive very challenging environments.
De Moraes, Consuelo M., and Mark Mescher. “What Plants Talk About.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 6 Oct. 2014, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/what-plants-talk-about-video-dodder-vine-sniffs-out-its-prey/8234/.
This is a part of a longer piece; this particular section focuses on Dodder Vines and their ability to hunt for tomato plants based on the smell tomatoes give off. I found this very helpful in understanding and engaging with the movements of an active organism as opposed to simply seeing a plant hunt for nutrients with their roots.
“Douglas Fir.” The National Wildlife Federation, http://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Plants-and-Fungi/Douglas-Fir.
Based off the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Forest Service, includes very short, detailed paragraphs of information on Douglas Fir trees.
Eckenwalder, James Emory. “Conifer.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 May 2018, http://www.britannica.com/plant/conifer.
Encyclopedia Brittanica has a very up to date, approachable article about Conifers in general and the different types in specific; I found the scale charts so helpful I expanded on theirs to share the one included above. However, if you cannot afford to pay for the article, it will only show part of the entire entry.
Franzen, Harald. “Plants Attract Enemy’s Enemies To Survive.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 16 Mar. 2001, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/plants-attract-enemys-ene/.
Scientific American presents a straightforward and easy to approach article on how tobacco plants react and defend themselves against caterpillar attacks. Brief, and useful.
Hill, J. C. “What Plants Talk About (Full Documentary).” YouTube, DocumFeed / YouTube, 28 Feb. 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrrSAc-vjG4&index=2&list=PLhk1Y01WpCBR8Kf_9OzmAK2nMo9yklr74&t=2183s.
This is the documentary that helped to inspire this entire series of plant poems. I found it engaging, detailed, funny at times, and overall fascinating. I definitely recommend this to anyone interested in learning a basic level of information on how plants communicate without humans even noticing (most of the time!).
Howell, Catherine Herbert. Pocket Guide to the Wildflowers of North America. National Geographic, 2014.
Less useful in writing this particular paper, but very helpful in beginning to identify the plants in the backyard that I wanted to narrow in on.
Kaiser, Bettina, et al. “Parasitic Plants of the Genus Cuscuta and Their Interaction with Susceptible and Resistant Host Plants.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 16 Jan. 2015, http://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2015.00045/full.
A very dry and scientific article, nonetheless very detailed and useful look at the interaction between Tomato Plant defensive response systems in reaction to Dodder Vines (of the genus Cuscuta) written by members of the Institute of Plant Biochemistry, (Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, University of Tübingen) and the Department of Botany (Ecophysiology and Vegetation Ecology, Julius-von-Sachs-Institut für Biowissenschaften, Botanischer Garten der Universität Würzburg, University of Würzburg).
Kershner, Bruce. Field Guide to Trees of North America. Sterling Publ. Co., 2008.
Very useful book in identifying trees, but also particularly helpful to my research on conifers and their variations
Malakoff, David. “Devious Dodder Vine Sniffs Out Its Victims.” NPR, Science / NPR, 28 Sept. 2006, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6160709.
Another reference from a radio station article, this also links the reader the journal “Science” which featured this article, as well as including audio. I was more familiar with this article when I started.
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. “Tobacco plant thwarts caterpillar onslaught by opening flowers in the morning.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 January 2010. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121135659.htm>.
I found this site useful for the scientific facts and explanations of how these plants were able to change from one form to another in order to attract different types of pollinators.
McLendon, Russell. “This Parasitic Vine Helps Plants Communicate.” MNN – Mother Nature Network, Mother Nature Network, 13 Sept. 2017, http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/blogs/dodder-vine-plant-communication.
An approachable, easy to read article about research on dodder vines and their ability to transfer warnings of infestations from one plant to another.
MidiSprout. “Plants FM.” Plants FM, MidiSprout / Plants FM, http://www.plants.fm/.
This site offers the best selections of sound, produced as the nodes on a plant read the electrical currents the plants emit and turns that current into a tonal frequency; the sound is quite beautiful, and reminiscent of my imagined Farandolae from Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time Series. The exhibit of the MidiSprout device, which is what is transferring plant response to audible music, that is currently at the Denver Botanical Gardens in the Orchid Room is what began this entire endeavor, as I was startled into thinking about how plants react to the world around themselves, to each other, and also to us. Youtube has a great variety of plant recordings, including one where a man played music to his plant for 6 hours with the midi sprout transmitting, and over time the plant’s rhythms and patterns changed to interact with the sounds the man was playing. I would strongly recommend starting at Plant FM and then looking up the Midi Sprout on Youtube for more adventures in plant song.
Nuwer, Rachel. “Forests Around Chernobyl Aren’t Decaying Properly.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 14 Mar. 2014, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/forests-around-chernobyl-arent-decaying-properly-180950075/.
Really useful introduction to the environmental effect of the Chernobyl radiation disaster, and how it is impacting the plant life around the area.
“Online Etymology Dictionary.” Edited by Anonymous, Index, www.etymonline.com/.
The OED has been an accurate source of information for a large lexicon and the roots, or lineages, that led to modern or archaic word meanings. It is a very useful and reliable resource for definitions and linguistic backgrounds, and is also fun to see what words mean or where they started.
Peterson, Lee Allen, and Roger Tory Peterson. A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.
Very dry and somewhat difficult to navigate, but did have some useful information on evergreens and conifers that helped me narrow down what information I was actually missing.
PBS, Nature on. “Wild Tobacco Plant Tricks Caterpillars for Self-Defense | Nature on PBS.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Mar. 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wunMErJJl00.
This source is a nice little documentary style explanation of one of the tactics the wild tobacco plant uses to prevent caterpillars (and presumably other herbivorous predators) from devouring its leaves or other necessary parts.
Wernick, Adam, and Alexa Lim. “The ‘Vampire Plant’ Is Even More Nefarious than Scientists Thought.” Public Radio International, PRI, 22 Aug. 2014, 4:00 pm, http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-08-22/vampire-plant-even-more-nefarious-scientists-thought.
Interview with James Westwood, both audio and written form, about dodder vines and their tactics and tendencies. I found it useful to listen to the article to confirm facts in conjunction with my other sources.
Yao, Stephanie. “Strawberry Gender Decided by Two Genes, Not One.” Dark Green Leafy Vegetables : USDA ARS, United States Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service , 6 Aug. 2009, www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2009/strawberry-gender-decided-by-two-genes-not-one/.
A preview of future poetic entries to come:
Garden Medley
Snow caught
Snow drop
Daffodils
present March
glow
Rose:
thorn throats
thrones throve
Opium orange
Ghost tears
Witch socks
Disturbed growth
Summer poppies
Godlike
viewing green
foliage/pests
herbivorous insects
“Release
the Ladybugs”
Chemical Warfare
Spotted Knapweed vs. Wild Lupine
Royal purples – Wars of Roses
historically tame: these intruders
murdered innocent bystanders (grasses)
Spotted Highwaymen vs. Wild Shield Walls
(winner?) only worms
Note on Rose:
- There are two types of embryonic leaves that form the two major categories of flowering plants; monocotyledons (single embryonic leaves) and dicotyledons (which have two embryonic leaves). Roses are dicots in terms of their embryonic leaves.
Notes on Chemical Warfare:
- The Spotted Knapweed is a destructive invasive species, brought to North America from Europe. Here, the climate and insects haven’t deterred growth and they have spread widely because of the lack of any natural enemies; they are also very sturdy, as even insects burrowing into the taproots don’t slow them down. These plants grow best in places of turbulent soils, and the monocultures (especially around human roads and houses) cause huge drops in biodiversity
- Spotted Knapweed deploys chemicals through its roots into the soil in order to break down the nutrients; however these chemicals are also fatal to the native grasses and the death of the natives allows the Knapweed to take over vast swathes of land. This type of area denial is rare in plants. The problem with Knapweed is that it releases (-)-catechin where most plants are working in the (+) spectrum.
- Wild Lupines, however, release oxalic acid to take apart the nutrients; oxalic acid acts as a shield barrier, preventing further spread of the (-)-catechin and providing protection to other plants nearby (for example, to the grasses!) This balance and positive feedback of plants is much more typical, demonstrating how different attributes of various flora can work together to more effectively form a healthy community/ecosystem.
Shadow Dancers: Fuchsia
I am sunsets sepals and petals
curled tongues, outstretched carapaces
autumnal hummingbird alizarin crimson
whispered fuchsia poison dart frog violet
wispy daybreak clouds pale eggshell indigo
nightmare mauve sliced yam peelings
Shadow / Light
branches as canopy synthesize sun
hammocks between limbs create sanctuary
rocks as bulwark constricting membranous scales
laddered bark supports escaping floods
companionship as community
epiphytic
Notes:
- Diagram of the parts of a fuchsia flower (from the Solent Fuchsia Club). The sepals are the outermost petals that close around the flower before it actually blooms; they’re a bit thicker and act as armor for the petals until they’re ready to emerge. There are typically four petals which curl around each other like a group hug with the stamens and pistils in the center.
- Fuchsia flowers have grown wild and still grow in the oak forests of South America, among other places. Cuttings and seeds from these have been taken for the more ‘domestic’ variations we grow in gardens. They are most often found either wrapping their roots around rocks between ferns, mosses, and other ground covers, or up about 3 – 6 feet off the ground. They don’t like to live in flooded soil, but they also dislike being too dry, so they tend to bloom and do best in the seasons of the year with more precipitation.
- Epiphytic plants are those which grow on and around other plants but don’t predate on them; instead, they photosynthesize and gather water and other nutrients on their own. In the case of fuchsia plants, which like to live in oak trees, they don’t even compete for pollinator attentions, as oak trees are wind pollinated and fuchsia plants draw hummingbirds and others to pollinate and help their seeds to travel.
- Fuchsia roots wrap around the bark of the host, or the rock, and create a sort of ‘scaly’ like dry skin, papery membrane around themselves to anchor on.
- We have a variant of fuchsia in our backyard called ‘shadow dancers’; they need to keep cool and grow best in partial shade. They are very sturdy little flowers but look incredibly delicate; the colors are very vibrant, and they bloom often during late summer to early fall, when watered carefully.
(Image also from the Solent Fuchsia Club site)
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Barnett