Sometimes it is difficult to “bloom where you’re planted”. Some seeds wither and die in inhospitable pockets where conditions for growth and expression are impossible. Others may survive, but remain dormant until conditions change to allow them to germinate and flourish. Seed dispersal via wind, water, animals, and human transport helps introduce diversity and extend home range as strategies of survival. This geographic distribution or movement can be perceived as desirable (fewer pests, diseases, predators in new environments for enhanced growth and vitality of interesting newcomers) or undesirable (invasive disruptors of local ecosystem stability as alien weeds).
Either way, Nature encounters changes all the time–both regular, cyclic changes like day/night, tides and seasons, as well as irregular, stochastic changes like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and lightning-induced fires. Some seeds are endowed with inherent characteristics accumulated as adaptions from forbearers (e.g., durable seed coat protection, fire tolerance, exceptional energy storage and/or low metabolism affording longevity) that enhance their chance of survival during and after change events.
At least one source has tagged humans as the most invasive weed species on our home planet, responsible for the accelerating rate of extinction as a threat to all life (PBS, Evolutionseries, Show 3: Extinction! – Chapter 7: Planet of Weeds: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/). Another blog post provides a list of weed characteristics:
o They interfere with activities we value, such as the way we want our gardens to look, the production of crops and livestock at least cost, other economic activities, or our use of the environment.
o They crowd out other species we would prefer to have at that site.
o They crowd out native species already growing there.
o They are directly toxic or otherwise bothersome to us (think of poison ivy).
o They are costly or difficult to prevent or remove.
o They tend to reproduce prolifically and occupy vacant or disrupted environments.
o They are often versatile in terms of habitat, nutrition, and interaction with other species–flexible and adaptable.
o Examples are rats and mice, or other species when introduced in new environments without their natural predators (dogs, prickly pear cactus in Australia)
This same blogger continues with a list entitled Those Pesky Humans! :
o They have invaded virtually every habitat on Earth except underwater zones (and will probably find a way to colonize Mars).
o They can out-compete any other species that occupies territory they want or that threatens them.
o They can reproduce rapidly when constraints of disease are removed by their technology.
o They have become one of the dominant species on the planet in just a few thousand generations.
He concludes, “We’re the kings and queens of the weeds!” (David Wheat’s Science In Action blog, “Are Human Beings Weeds?” 5 November 2004: http://sxxz.blogspot.com/2004/11/are-human-beings-weeds.html). Both PBS and blogger David Wheat paint humans-as-weeds unflatteringly, perhaps with ample justification.
Others see “weeds” (plant, animal, or human in places where they are not ordinarily found or wanted) in a different way. For example, Australian permaculturalist Bill Mollison asserts that pioneering weed species are “Nature’s band-aides” and first responders starting the process of land healing (he does not advocate weeds in place of native plants; he just does not malign weeds for the functional role they can impart positively in initial land restoration, followed by their replacement).
Along this “pioneering” line of thought, some pioneers are lauded and memorialized like Christopher Columbus and Daniel Boone. But what about the millions of First Peoples living in 1491and thousands of years in the New World and in the American “wilderness” long before these pioneers arrived? The remaining descendants of the First Peoples mostly removed from their former homelands surely have an entirely different perception from what American history books teach us about these pioneers.
Interestingly, other pioneers are often ostracized, condemned, and persecuted because they see things differently and act upon creative insights that threaten the prevailing worldview or status quo power structure. As such they are not tolerated and are ruined or destroyed. A famous example includes Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei’s persecution by the Roman Catholic Church for his scientific argument supporting a sun-centered solar system in contrast to the earth-centered notion held by orthodox opinion of the day. The verdict of the Inquisition against him was “vehement suspicion of heresy.” Inquisition officials placed him under house arrest for approximately nine years (1633-1642) during which time he lost his eyesight and eventually died.
An appropriate pioneering example involving seeds is the sad story of Russian botanist and geneticist Nicolei Vavilov, the father of modern seed banks. His visionary efforts focused on collecting and identifying the centers of origin for the world’s main staple crops – primarily cereals – to conserve germplasm and improve food production to help prevent famine in Russia and elsewhere globally. He collected seeds tirelessly around the world and established the world’s most extensive seed repository in Leningrad. A jealous protege of Vavilov, Trofim Lysenko, who had the ear of Josef Stalin, orchestrated Vavilov’s jailing in 1940 for his steadfast criticism of Lysenko’s erroneous scientific assertions on genetic inheritance. In fact, “Lysenkoism” (like “McCarthyism” in the USA) became a moniker for “manipulation or distortion of the scientific process as a way to reach a predetermined conclusion as dictated by an ideological bias, often related to social or political objectives.” In World War II, Germany’s siege of Leningrad began in September 1941, seventy years ago this month. Vavilov died of hunger and malnutrition in 1943 while imprisoned. During the Nazi invasion of Russia, Hitler ordered that the contents of the seed repository in Leningrad to be confiscated and brought to Germany. Vavilov’s loyal assistants hid much of the seed collection in a concealed basement. Rather than eat the seed under their protection, their dead bodies by starvation were discovered later having saved the seed collection intact.
Well, what’s all the fuss; perhaps fair Juliet knows best when she said, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2). Enjoy the seasonal cycle towards the autumnal equinox bringing welcomed change. May you bloom where you’re planted.
Seed for thought,
GEM Education Center Blog 