A Plant Journey
~ by Jim Eagleman
Field Notes
As a kid on our Pennsylvania sheep farm, I can’ t recall any particular reference to a plant. The alfalfa hay fields we baled each summer, full and green with new hay, were a thing of pride for my dad, but I never thought of it as a food. To me, the crop we grew for sheep was foreign. I just remember the hard work involved. Grains for the horses and cornmeal for chickens just magically appeared. Even our big garden with luscious tomatoes and sweet corn didn’ t register as things grown from soil, then fed to the family. The fields, forests, and pastures were just my green playground.
In high school biology class, we looked at plant stems and leaves under a microscope and I first heard the words xylem, and phloem. Slowly we were introduced to the plant world by an energetic teacher who brought in a different plant each day. We learned plant parts, flower types, roots, and how plants made food. A by-product of this process, the very air we breathed, was important. He held the plant close to his mouth and cupped in the air around it. The gas exchange between plants and humans was one of the most fundamental relationships in nature, he explained and made sure we understood.
A college class in general botany freshman year also made an impact on me. Botany, the biology of plants, made me think of the green world in much larger terms. Plants were the basis for all life, and if I was to become a biologist, I would have a lot to learn.
“ Any good biologist is also a good botanist,” I heard a professor say. Our summer at the university field station was filled with natural resource topics, field courses, and lab work. I studied local flora, plant taxonomy, and bryology( the study of mosses), while I gave my wildlife classes a more serious focus. A minor in botany helped me better understand the plant world, but it was wild animals and how they lived that captured my attention and heart.
If we were to understand a wild animal, we had to learn about its diet. We studied when food ripens; when, where, and how it is eaten; how it is stored; and how it is digested. If something in the diet is scarce, what food gets substituted? How and where are young protected? Without doubt, the vegetative community played a major role. Nests, burrows and trails, runways, and loafing areas used by animals are found in forests, fields, and fence rows. The plants they need and habitats are close by. The diversity of animals is due to food availability. When food is limited, animals move.
When we hear of the current push to remove alien plants from the environment, there may be a mixed message. Aren’ t all plants important? Why remove them if they provide food and homes?
Alien plants have been introduced throughout the world and are now found in places other than where they originated.
64 Our Brown County • May / June 2024