PLANTS & RIDICULOUSNESS: THE UNTAMABLES

Sunday, July 7, 2013

THE UNTAMABLES

Some plants refuse to be tamed, where no amount of fussing, pampering, or coddling ever seems to make them happy in the garden. Just like wild animals, these plants are best left to their own devices to roam free in the areas they colonize on their own. Of course, this elusivity and tempermentality, only adds to their alure. More importantly, the inability to bring these plants into cultivation points to the complexities of soil biology and ecology that these plants rely on to survive. A relationship that people have yet to fully understand, or at least have the ability or means to adapt in a controlled production setting. Most of the literature I have read, at least as it pertains to these types of "untamable" species, points to an extreme interconnectedness and dependency on the soil microfauna that makes them so difficult to cultivate in the garden.

In the specific instances of the plants that I've been lucky enough to have cross my path, they are often found in low light environments, which (at least initially) may have lead to phyotosynthetic deficit that the plants have evoloved to compensate for by forming very strong relationships with the soil mircofauna, the most common of these being mycorrhiza. This broad term is used to refer to a diverse group soil fungi that nearly all plants utilize to increase the functionality and performance capacity of their roots. While I won't get into the boring minuscule details, the science of mycorrhiza is something that all gardeners and designers should at least have some basic understanding of, and if you've never heard about it, its time you read (or watched) up. There's already a line of products geared toward mycorrhizae establishment so rather than dumping unnecessary amounts of chemical fertilizers that often damage soils in the long term, you may want to take a look at some of these products instead.

Getting back to the plants.... while I'm sure there are many more examples than what I know of, the most common and interesting of these that takes things to an extreme is the Ghost Plant, Indian Pipe, or Corpse Plant (perhaps the most fitting of the names as there is definitely something unsettling about these little guys). Their translucency is a result of a complete lack of photosynthetic activity, as they are now completely dependent on the soil mycorrhizae for nourishment, and therefore have no need to produce food on their own. So the next time you come across one of these guys, just appreciate them for what they are, beautiful reminders that somethings were just never meant to be tamed.