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10. Regional Heritage Plants
- The University Press of Kentucky
- Chapter
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In the United States the name of the cooperative effort (to preserve species) between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Kew Royal Botanical Gardens is called “Seeds of Success .” To collect the wild plant seed the BLM in many cases has contracted the work of young botanists through the Student Conservation Association. I was one of those young botanists. In the summer of 2005, we roamed the mountains and valleys of southeastern Idaho in a grand search of plant species. Many times we found a promising flowering population of a plant that had not yet been collected. Then several weeks later when the flower had matured into seed we returned to collect the seed. In this manner our small team collected seeds from about 70 plant species. John Thomas, biology student, Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana It is no accident that the Cherokee refer to the southern Appalachian mountains as “the birthplace of all the plant people .” The genetic material passed on in plants and animals through generations is an evolutionary heritage, a natural equivalent to sacred songs, ceremonial dances, and the solemn passing down of cultural traditions on the human level. Nature in an unheralded manner passes on its tradition through a tortuous process of sorting out living forms that could survive under speci fic environmental conditions of soil, climate, and unusual weather conditions. The wild animals (see chapter 12) and plants CHAPTER 10 Regional Heritage Plants have survived and thrived provided there was no major human or other interference. The land sections of this book include information on restoring damaged land using healthy plant species. Here, our attention is given to plants that are also part of our food chain (nuts, fruits, herbs, and vegetables); when that chain is weakened, our very survival is at stake. Many food plants have been threatened or endangered by monocultural practices in agriculture. It is imperative to question short-term practices that advocate growing certain plants from seeds that are mass produced, using genetically altered plants that can withstand certain pest assaults or weather conditions —and that prove more profitable to corporate interests. We soon forget that these cultivated popular species may have hidden weaknesses that will only come to light when it is too late. Furthermore, these species may not withstand unexpected threats and may be wiped out, as Irish potatoes were in 1848. Biodiversity protection and continuity are crucial for the Earth’s health and our human survival. Reducing that diversity, as is being done by modern seed-propagation techniques and business practices, may ultimately be harmful to the entire biosphere . Good Earth insurance includes plant protection directed at enhancement of our global genetic wealth. Part of healing the Earth is restoring this threatened heritage of native species. We could talk about the answers actual and possible to a host of threats, from rain forests being cut to coral reefs being damaged, from prairie grasses being plowed or trampled to desert flowers being run down by dune buggies. But it is best to restore some food plants well with the strong resolve that the movement will grow to include all plants whether presently useful or not, for biodiversity covers an immense range. We include here four special topics associated with regional heritage concerns: American chestnuts; apples, the grand temperate fruit, including crab apples and exotic varieties; heritage herbs; and seed-saving techniques. Regional Heritage Plants ❖ 125 [18.232.88.17] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:25 GMT) 126 ❖ Healing Appalachia AMERICAN CHESTNUTS They also grew behind my house, and one large tree, which almost overshadowed it, was, when in flower, a bouquet which scented the whole neighborhood, but the squirrels and the jays got the most of its fruit; the last coming in flocks early in the morning and picking the nuts out of the burs before they fell. Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854) I am too young to remember the blight that killed our chestnuts (Castanea americanus), but I recall a massive 3-foot-diameter ghost trunk on our farm’s border. We kids brought a chunk into the shop where my dad was working; he told us to take it back, as though we had disturbed a grave. My dad kept the farm quite tidy, but he left the chestnut’s grayish white remains for years just where they fell—and we never forgot his hurt. In 1904, a fungus disease, Cryphonectria (formerly Endothia) parasitica, believed to have been imported on Asian chestnuts in the 1880s, reached...