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From The Garden of Ed. Submitted for publication in The Towne Crier on July 28, 2005

The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower #5

... is a continuation of my overview of the history of plants and their important influence on man.

Plants: They're in It for Themselves!

Let there be no mistake about this. What plants have is for their good! We are fortunate that sometimes we benefit, too, in that what we obtain from them nourishes us and maintains our good health. And, sometimes what a plant contains can even help restore one's failing health. Hence, a common model many folk medicines is found in plants.

As mentioned previously, plants also contain the means of their own defense against rivals, invaders, predators. If necessary, they can and will kill. With no concern for the victim, a plant can dispense toxins of agonizing and deadly results. Remember, what plants contain is for their good. In the vitalist sense, they are as gods with powers to nourish, heal and kill. We are the sentimental ones.

The first group that comes to mind is the plant carnivores which require animal flesh to survive. Some use poisonous stews to digest their prey; others have sticky prickles and tendrils that entrap and strangle their prey; another, maybe most famous (Little Shop of Horrors) uses mechanical triggers and hinges to trap insects lured by bright colors and/or enticing smells -- the Venus's flytrap. More exotic varieties use flies, gnats and moths to attract and capture larger amphibians. There are hundreds of species believed to have evolved to find another source for the nitrogen that is so sorely lacking in the usual warm, bogland habitat they occupy.

These powers over life and death, agony and ecstasy are sure to confuse the uninitiated. This seems especially formidable when it comes to the fungi. Some mushrooms so exquisitely excite the palate that many people risk horrifying and tortuous suffering in their quest. Poisonous mushrooms claim many lives each year due to longing and mistakes.

One need not travel to far away places. The meadow down the road will suffice. Even your own backyard, or flower garden, or vegetable garden can provide you with myriad examples of plants waging chemical warfare since they cannot just run away. Ingest irises, lily of the valley, mountain laurel leaves, columbine, tomato and potato stems and leaves. Apple seeds and the seeds in peach and apricot pits contain cyanide in small amounts. Raw lima beans, too. Eating any of hundreds of other harmful or improperly prepared plant parts, and your symptoms may range from discomfort to death.

Individual allergies are as diverse as the substances that are delectable to one and deadly to another. Pollen. Peanuts. These are in the news all the time. Did you know a carrot can kill a white mouse? Some scientists believe there is no such thing as a definition of poison. It's all a matter of individual sensitivity, they say. Millions surely believe differently.

History has countless examples of man's employment of toxic parts of plants to do all matter of deeds. From the earliest writings of the world's earliest cultures, we find documentation that plants have been used to carry out capital punishment, and serve as a way out (suicide), if things got out of hand. Toxic leaves and saps were used to stupefy game birds and fish, as well as to maim prey, thus securing both food and protection. Today, many plant parts are processed and enlisted in the service of farmers and growers to combat a host of insect pests and even some mammals. Keep in mind that what plants contain is for their own good, first.

Also recorded is the close relationship between poisons and cures. Medieval herb gardens were the provence of shamans, witch doctors, healers and all manner of traveling salesmen with promises of the power of life over death. And, for sale! What followed were the herbalists. It was understood that botany and medicine were equivalent. Any gift of healing required a knowledge of plants. The vast number of herbals and pharmacopeia that have come down through the centuries from nearly every culture stand as testimony to the curative and harmful effects of the vegetative and floral world.

The power of plant derivatives to alleviate a headache or cure an infection was never considered by the plant during its evolution. We evolved in a plant environment. Remember, we are, in essence, recycled plant matter. We are shaped by the plant world, a product of it, and cannot break free of its hold on us. It might benefit us to keep this in mind the next time we open an aspirin bottle.

Earliest man experienced many of these miraculous plant actions some 60,000 years ago. Evidence from their burial sites confirms this. Written records from 2000 B.C. exist as well. Ancient Chinese art shows ginseng was in use 4000 years ago. Plants have the ability to nourish, cure, irritate, or deliver death. The vast number of plants with these powers taxes the imagination, and most are probably still unknown or undiscovered. One can only wonder how many are wasted or unused. But then, just as plants can't run away, they can't speak out to let us know. We must be vigilant and continue to search for their secrets.

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From The Garden of Ed. Submitted for publication in The Towne Crier on July 28, 2005

© 2005 Ed Mues. All Rights Reserved.
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eMail:  eGarden@MountainAir.us

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