All Life Depends on Plants

Plants and humans need sunshine, but only plants can use that sunshine to make their own food and convert the solar energy into useful forms for itself.

I was visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden a few years back when I purchased a t-shirt that said "All Life Depends on Plants". Of course it does! On the surface, I thought of how we as humans use plants for food, shelter, medicine, clothing etc. That's what we are always taught. It wasn't until the long drive home when my mind began to wander and think deeper about the phrase. The world would survive and go on without humans, but how would the world continue without plants? What are all of the organisms that rely on plants to grow, reproduce, or simply live. This is a serious issue, and one that is in need of urgent action. I hope that I am not the first to bring this to anyone's attention.

I was working as a Botany Lab Manager at that time. I was responsible for a display case located outside of the botany lab classroom. I used the t-shirt I bought as a prop, with the title of this display as "Ethnobotany". I began to fill the case with ways that life does depend on plants, and our relationship as humans with plants, as well as animals, insects, and soil. It was FULL. And there was still more information that could have been added. There was a lot of conversations around the topic. A Microbiologist began the discussion about how microbes don't depend on plants, and how they could survive without them. Its well known that plants grow better with increased microorganisms in the soil. It has been shown that the rhizosphere (area surrounding plant roots in the soil) have higher numbers of beneficial bacteria. I asked myself, what if there weren't any plant roots, where else would the microbial material gather or thrive? Some would think that a virus doesn't need a plant, but as viruses and diseases go, they need the virus (pathogen), the right environment, and a host. Still so many questions and so much to learn.

It's not as simple as saying all life depends on plants and not thinking any further about it. I have dedicated my life to growing plants. Part of the reason is because I am fascinated with the plant world, I enjoy learning more about plants and our relationship with them, but there is another reason. I know that all is right when I am surrounded by the essence of green beings, continue to be driven by the magic of the unseen, and believe in plant spirits. I studied horticulture because it is described as the "art and science of growing plants". Somewhere, the word "spirit" needs to be included. Meet any fairy, and you'll understand.

A Humans Connection to Plants

Patti observing Ginseng, Panax quinquefolius

I'm not really sure when it happened, or where, how old I was, or if maybe my connection to plants comes from a past life. I just know that I have always enjoyed being in the presence of green things. I grew up in a mid-century built neighborhood of red or yellow brick matching houses where the blueprints probably came from a Sears catalog of home designs. I remember the yard seemed so big, I would roll around in the lawn of "weeds". I would carefully select and eat the bright, banana shaped flowers of oxalis and collect dark, black seeds from tropical colored 4 O' Clocks that my mother planted along the fence. I was always barefoot and I would have to stop to remove spheres of thorns from the soles of my feet. I didn't mind, I just learned how to notice the plants that these pickers grew on and avoid them. We would swim in the ditches after a flood, run out to buy ice cream from the ice cream truck, and stay inside when the trucks drove down the streets to spray DDT for mosquitoes. I walked to school about a block, and would sit on the corner of my street after school waiting for my mom to come home from work. While walking or waiting I was always looking at the plants grew in the ditches or the trees that grew nearby. Plants are EVERYWHERE! Have you seen them? Do you notice them when you walk by? Noticing plants throughout my life is in my blood, just like the DDT that was sprayed in my neighborhood when I was a kid.

In autumn, we would go camping during hunting season. My step-dad was a bow hunter, My mom would go too, but never really hunted. My brother is 6 years older and he would also hunt. I have an older sister that was married by this time. I recall walking in the woods, the colors of the leaves, the smell of the soil, the cool weather on my skin. I wouldn't hunt, but would have to fill my time playing around the campsite. I would look for animal tracks, and wish for catching a glimpse of them in the trees or behind a rock. As a child a spent a lot of time alone with the outdoors. Not complaining. This is probably one of the reasons I love the woods and live in them now. I feel very comfortable alone in nature looking at the plants.

As an adult, I had an herb and vegetable garden that also included flowers. I would make things using nature as my inspiration. I thought that my relationship with plants was a basic human thing. I was long into my adulthood when I realized that this wasn't so. I heard somewhere, maybe from Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods that humans fall somewhere along this nature continuum, where on one end we are deeply connected, and on the other end, there is less of, if any, of a connection to nature. We each fall somewhere along this continuum. There must be a place somewhere on this continuum where nature isn't valued, but plants are liked. It was after thinking about this I began to realize how some humans thought of plants for their gardens as collectables. Where some would add plants to their garden (liked) while justifying the act of digging up and removing them from their natural habitat (not valued). An example could be wild orchids. Maybe where plants were used for food or medicine (liked) but harvested to the point of or close to extinction (not valued). An example of this could be white sage or ginseng.

What is right. What is wrong. I don't know. I do have concerns over nature and plant populations. This is why I am committed to doing what I do. I like growing plants. I am dedicated to the cultivation and preservation of plants, and this includes at risk plants. United Plant Savers is an organization that I wholeheartedly support and admire for the work they have done in plant preservation and protection. Click here for a link, or on their logo at the bottom of this website. https://unitedplantsavers.org/species-at-risk-list/ Let's have a conversation about foraging some time. How many people does it take to only forage 10% of a plant part until it is gone? I'm not against foraging, it's just a question to ponder during these times. It's a really popular and trending thing to do.

The Land

Heartwood Forest Farm

Heartwood Forest Farm hasn't always looked like this. When we bought the property this area was an old, 40-50 year old, dead and dying, Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris planting. It was planted by the original owner for Christmas trees, which are not a popular species anymore, so they grew and grew and grew. Many died and were toppled over others, we couldn't even walk through it. Walking up the driveway was a very dark, dismal experience. You would have never known it was the same as the Maple/Beech forest that spread across the rest of the land. After much consultation with the Conservation District, a local forester, and plant biologists, we knew that they needed to be removed. We found a local company to cut all of the trees. They sold them to the local biomass company, and that afforded us enough to hire our neighbor to remove the stumps. This doesn't sound very friendly, but if you would have seen them, you too would have agreed that something should be done. A huge fire hazard. I was told that if someone tossed a cigarette out their window they could go up just like that. I didn't want to be responsible for NW Michigan's largest forest fire knowing we could have prevented it. I also learned about how these pines are now considered an invasive species. Once it was all over, it felt very destructive. The soil pH was about 5.0 on 2.5 acres. We could see what looked similar to the sandy shores of Lake Michigan, better known as Kalkaska soil which is sand left by the glaciers that covered Michigan. It was hot and dry, and there were no living plants. This was about 8 years before this picture was taken. It has been a beautiful thing watching it come back to life.

I try to imagine the land before people settled here. Cedar is known for being an area where there were many Polish settlers. The town is known for the Polka Festival. I am a blend of English, German, and Irish but find myself estranged from any of my ancestors. What I try to think about is the indigenous people of the area. The Anishinaabe people. Here in Leelanau County, you will find the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. The land here is wooded and rolling, and as I mentioned, a Beech/Maple forest. I imagine an untouched land that was used for hunting and maple syrup. Full of wildlife and medicine plants you would typically find in this type of forest. Hunters and gatherers would visit from all around to the area where the legends of the sleeping bear were told through stories over the generations. I honor, respect, and appreciate all of those who came to this land before me. I don't think of myself as an "owner" of this land, more of a caretaker. I have always been taught to leave things better than when you found them. Well I don't really think that I can leave any land better than when it was undisturbed like many years before my time, but I will do my best to tend this land. Community, Preservation, and Regeneration are three of our core values. If you come by, lets talk about them.