Embodied sunshine—What does the plant world need from us?

Ways to partner with the plant kingdom and raise leafy awareness

Photo by James Wheeler on Unsplash

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Happy Spring! The vernal equinox arrived on March 20 this year. I hope you’re starting to see a shift from winter into something warmer.

To celebrate the advent of spring, I’m exploring a few ways we can promote, restore, and celebrate the verdant plant world. I’d love to hear more ideas from readers. Share at the Comments button at the bottom. 💚🌲🪴

Robin

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IT TOOK A WHILE TO FIGURE OUT, but I discovered there are many gradations of plant awareness ranging from plant-people to non-plant people. I had assumed that everyone noticed and appreciated the world of greenery, but some people treat living plants as if they were invisible and unimportant.

This becomes more true as we advance into a technological world with smartphones in our pockets, AI curating our media reads, and fewer hours spent outside.

Our contemporary, technological society is probably more out of touch with plant life than any other culture in human history due to its degree of urbanization and mechanization. 

Most people barely notice the existence of plants or even seem to recognize them as living things. Their attention is buried in screens, their focus centered on human affairs. A UFO looking down might marvel at how little attention and care we collectively give to plants considering that we utterly depend on them for the food we eat and the air we breath.

Kollibri Terra Sonneblum, author, wild plant enthusiast 

“Meeting” plants at a young age

I was lucky to be raised in a family with a close relationship to the plant world since my parents ran a nursery for decades. Even before that family business started, I remember my father taking me along on a trip to the local nursery when I was about seven years old and saying I could pick out my first houseplant if I assumed responsibility. I chose a small Purple Velvet plant (Gynura aurantiaca). I remember my fascination stroking its soft, velvety fuzz and watching its leaves grow toward the sun on my window sill. It was an early lesson in observing and caring for another species. 

What do plants do for us? The question should be more like—what don't they do? First, they give us food. All that greenery absorbs sunshine (through photosynthesis) and converts it into a form we (and other creatures) can use as food for energy. They are sunshine embodied and the foundation of the food chain. 

The plant world also provides building materials, furniture, medicines, spices, clothing and fabric products, paper and cardboard, pigments, and energy from burning wood. 

In addition, plants offer us beauty, better health, and contentment. If you like to walk in forests, view wildflowers, hike through shrub-covered hills, or dig your hands into a garden—you'll recognize the ability of the plant world to regulate us emotionally and physically. 

We rely on plants for our very existence. Vegetation produces much of Earth's oxygen from wild grasses to towering trees, ocean algae and seaweeds.

The PRP campaign

Plants are living with more challenges now, though, because the climate is changing faster than some of them can adapt. Ultimately, we need to stop heating up the planet, but at the same time, let's take care of our leafy green friends—our life support system.

What can we do to bring a needed focus to their plight? Perhaps plants need more public relations agents in the 21st century to remind us about their many-splendored beings. 

Here are some ways to help promote more awareness of the plant world. Let's call it a PRP campaign—Public Relations for Plants. No experience is necessary to participate, and the time commitment can be small. You're already "hired" if you live on Earth. 

Native rhododendron in Mendocino County redwood forest, Photo by Robin Applegarth

1. Give someone a plant gift to "introduce" them to the joy of plants or honor a legacy.

We need to "grow" the number of people who pay attention to the leafy world. If more children had positive experiences with plants, the world might be a different place. Classrooms could have sponsored field trips to a nursery so children could choose their first plant—cherry tomato, sculptured succulent, or cheerful zinnia. 

We could celebrate birthdays or honor someone's memory by donating a tree or flowering bush to plant in the community. 

After my plant-loving mother passed away, her neighbors purchased a tree and gathered to plant it in her honor. Unlike a bouquet of flowers that wilts and gets tossed, a living tree gives back by providing shade or fruit, and habitat. It was a thoughtful legacy. 

2. "Adopt" a tree or plant species and become its advocate.

Adoption might look like protecting or raising awareness about a tree species or botanical region in your area, whether redwoods, pines, native oaks or a park you love. Or you may feel motivated to speak up for an endangered or threatened plant nearby.

I like to promote redwood conservation when I can. My Mother E article on over-logging was picked up as an editorial in the local Independent Coast Observer newspaper. These trees, which should grow to huge sizes over 1,000-2,000 years, are mostly cut down now before they reach 125 years.

Letters to the editor are another way to educate locals and perhaps start a dialogue. Our voices can be more powerful when aligned with other people or environmental groups.  

Thieves digging Dudleya

In my area, thieves were digging up Dudleya farinosa, a native succulent growing on coastal cliffs, and shipping them to Asia, leading to the succulents' decline. One person wrote an article about it in the local newspaper, and it was also reported on NPR, which alerted more people. While the problem is ongoing, the publicity helped catch several thieves and rescue thousands of plants. These plants needed human advocacy. As game warden Patrick Freeling said, "We're here because Dudleya can't dial 911."

In another example of partnering with the plant kingdom, I noticed Facebook volunteers organizing a campaign over a year ago to help Valley oaks by replanting hillsides charred by a forest fire in nearby Lake County, CA.

These volunteers, mostly women, first collected sacks of acorns from the same species of oak nearby, then organized hike-in planting parties in the burned area before the rainy season. They're holding faith that the acorns and time will grow new oaks to regenerate the area. They could call themselves “Mothers of Oaks.”

Oak Hillside, Photo by Christina DelliSante on Unsplash

3. Plant a spring garden, tend the land, or do urban farming with neighbors. 

I'm seeing a slowly growing trend for city communities to improve their streets and vacant lots by channeling rain and growing urban food forests. Here are two inspiring stories of people taking back their neighborhoods by partnering with plants.

Here’s an example of urban farming on a half acre city lot in a “food desert” neighborhood in Sacramento, CA.

Our farm is a sanctuary for life. It’s also a place where people can step out of the pressures of an everyday city life and be able to step into a new world where there’s nature, where there’s food, where there are bees, where there are chickens and start to recover some of that awe and wonder of nature that we seem to lose as we get older.

Chanowk Yisrael, Sacramento urban farmer

In a hot, desert town in Arizona, a different kind of urban food-forest is setting a new model for climate adaptability and rainfall management.

The unpaved sidewalks are lined with native, food-bearing trees and shrubs fed by rainwater diverted from city streets. One single block has over 100 plant species, including native goji berries, desert ironwood with edamame-like seeds and chuparosa bushes with cucumber-flavored flowers.

From a Guardian article by Samuel Gilbert, ‘A Living Pantry’: How an urban food forest in Arizona became a model for climate action

Don't have a yard? Some people practice "guerrilla gardening," which is sowing seeds or planting in neglected public spaces. The goal is usually to beautify a place, grow food for public consumption, or provide pollinator habitat where it’s missing.

Restoring landscapes with the land trusts

In these challenging times, we need to widen our sphere of concern for plants beyond our own home or yard. One place to do so is by volunteering with a local land trust or park. My area’s local land trusts, Redwood Coast Land Conservancy and Mendocino Land Trust, are always looking for volunteers to control invasive plants and restore ecosystems. Offering a few hours of help on a scenic property with like-minded people can be a fun experience.

4. Help plants by repairing soil or promoting regenerative gardening. 

Building better soils is a local act of plant and climate support. When we use food waste productively by composting, we can help enrich the soils nearby and also reduce the climate-warming methane gasses from food waste going to landfills.

Ultimately, healthy soil with abundant microbes is the basis for all life on Earth.

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Plants don't ask for much. They're humble, giving more to us than we give back. What if we offered them more attention, cast our compost at their rooted feet, sowed their seeds in more places, and linked arms with branches to protect forests and wild places? 

We need stronger partnerships with the plant world. Raising plant awareness, re-greening, whether it’s on a square yard of dirt or at a neighborhood level, is an act of restoration for the vegetative kingdom —and redemption for ourselves.

Robin Applegarth

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Related reading: Awe and wonder in the leafy kingdom

1. What has no brain, but can learn and plan? Hint, it’s green. What plants are saying about us.

2. Feeling feisty about biodiversity losses? Practice some guerrilla gardening by learning how to make seed bombs. No one will get hurt and you might have some fun beautifying an area. Just make sure you’re not using seeds from any invasive plants.

3. Why are plants green? This Nautilus article explains. “Plants ignore the most energy-rich part of sunlight because stability matters more than efficiency, according to a new model of photosynthesis.”

4. Celebrate Arbor Day, on April 28, 2023 by planting a tree somewhere.

5. The California Native Plant Society is a good place to learn about what’s native in your region if you’re based in CA. If you live elsewhere, gardening clubs or nurseries can help you find native plants, which fit in with the local birds, animals, and insects better than non-natives.

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I like to hear from readers!

Can you think of other actions we could take as Public Relations for Plants? 💚 Do you consider yourself a plant person?

You can comment at the button above, respond to your subscriber email to reach me privately, or reach out on Twitter @RobinApplegarth. If you liked this article, hit the heart ❤️button at the bottom as it helps more people find it. Thank you to readers who have referred Mother E to friends and shared on social media!

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