I loved this article in the NY Times about the wonderful intricacies of plants. You might wonder what this has to do with The Green Guide for Horse Owners and Riders, but trust me, it’s related.
I know it was a paradigm shift when I started to realize that the ground we walked on was really a large, interconnected life. I’m not talking about some spacey Avatar (digression… REALLY GOOD MOVIE) planet where you pluck a dandelion and the tree in the next field feels the pain… I’m talking about the reliance of all living things on the balance of life. We must have enough trees to keep our air clean, we must have enough space to grow food for our families, we must have enough people to harvest (I think we have this covered!).
But even down to the smallest degree – think of the decline in the honeybee population and it’s potential effects on the world food supply! Just one organism….
But back to my point. Read what researchers say about plants:
Plants are lively and seek to keep it that way. The more that scientists learn about the complexity of plants — their keen sensitivity to the environment, the speed with which they react to changes in the environment, and the extraordinary number of tricks that plants will rally to fight off attackers and solicit help from afar — the more impressed researchers become, and the less easily we can dismiss plants as so much fiberfill backdrop, passive sunlight collectors on which deer, antelope and vegans can conveniently graze. It’s time for a green revolution, a reseeding of our stubborn animal minds.
When plant biologists speak of their subjects, they use active verbs and vivid images. Plants “forage” for resources like light and soil nutrients and “anticipate” rough spots and opportunities. By analyzing the ratio of red light and far red light falling on their leaves, for example, they can sense the presence of other chlorophyllated competitors nearby and try to grow the other way. Their roots ride the underground “rhizosphere” and engage in cross-cultural and microbial trade.
Does it change the way you think about your pastures? There are mini-wars happening every single day in your pasture. The moment a caterpillar starts feeding on one plant, that plant starts to change and develop defensive mechanisms. Or some plants can sense when insect eggs have been deposited on their leaves and can actually signal to other insects to come and destroy those eggs.
Please, read the article. And then try and look at your pastures the same way again.
