A New Thought
I’m fond of expressing my appreciation for native plants, and castigating invasives but I wonder now if that language is appropriate or even helpful. Before the advent of humans, I’m fairly certain plants moved from place to place born on the wind or in the guts of birds or animals as seeds. That’s how any island developed its biosphere. So, no plant springs whole cloth from the ground. They just get somewhere. Like it. And grow.
Humans added an extra dimension to this. We carry things because we like them, on purpose. That’s how crape myrtles came to the south along with kudzu. And of course, there are all of our seed crops, genetically altered by years of experiment or in the lab. We breed plants on purpose. And we plant things that we like. I always say I like native plants, but one of my favorites is the barbados cherry, which as its name implies comes from Barbados. So, it seems odd to say any plant is native to anywhere.
Of course this language conundrum is the same one I have with saying the sun rises or sets, because it doesn’t, the earth is the one moving. The sun just sits there. And plants aren’t invasive because that seems to imply intent; rather they just find themselves in a place and grow if the conditions are right. But at this point in my life it feels like I’m stuck with the language I have and this is just one of those odd, divergent paradigm shifts that happen to me on occasion. The only upside is that now I have something to wrestle with late at night.