While it is rare that I share in audio format, my offering today is about sound, and it came flowing out vocally in motion. So, I offer you audio, a few Haiku, and a peek in my nature journal from this past week, which I have spent on a lake on a small island listening to birds, paddling, drawing, and reading.

I have been processing a lot of concepts as I recently embarked on a Masters program in Environmental Education and Communication. Today is the first day that something from all those thoughts decided to emerge with some coherence. So here we go….

…

Bird calls in the morning

Beckoning me to wake up

To join in the song

…

How do you add your voice and your story to the world? How does the song you hear from others resonate within you? Do you truly hear what they are singing, or do you only gather what you are looking for? We all sometimes find ourselves at odds with others, whether that be those closest to us or those across a social or political divide. As I contemplate environmental problem solving, I am approaching the heart of what prevents us from connecting and working together on our collective future. How can we hear voices that sound different from our own? Voices of people with other opinions and perspectives, voices of people from different cultures, and voices of the more-than-human world? Given that we are all interwoven in the same coherent whole it seems imperative that we intentionally learn to see the mutually influentially nature of our inherent connection points.

…

Learning to listen

Inner truly meets outer

Becoming other

…

This morning after listening to the birds, I wandered and recorded some thoughts on sound, language, myth and paradigm, communication and and deep listening……

…

Crack your heart open

And find that the outside world

Is already you

…

Turns out that the bird I saw and heard was a Belted Kingfisher. Here is a peek into my nature journal.

…

Until next time,

Lindsay

All words and images by me, with help only from the plants and birds, no AI.

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Baron, N. & Acorn, J. (1997) Birds of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Lone Pine Publishing.

Dale, A. (2002). Chapter 2: Paradigms, myths and metaphors. In At the Edge: Sustainable Development in the 21st Century Vancouver: UBC Press.

And the friend, Delvin, I mentioned who you too can learn from: https://www.permaculturedesign.earth

In the quiet pause the song of life is heard

Sound matters

Pattern emerges

I disappear and become part of the coherent whole, vibrating, responding in harmony

With both agency and acceptance

Yielding while acting

Embodying deep, timeless yearnings

The dance of self and other becomes seamless

Perhaps at times rough like the meeting of two atmospheric pressure systems, but still unified in some meeting place where droplets form and the gaseous potentials of life become solid and liquid falling to Earth.

The meeting place between us is both a place with the potential for deep joy to be unearthed and a place of potential confrontation and conflict. This is why land repair, caring for our Earth is also heart repair. We have to be able to be vulnerable, to be wrong, to change our minds. We have to be willing to be vulnerable to deconstruct, decompose old paradigms, and enact and embody new ways of being. Together. Environment includes culture. Ecosystem includes the inside of your body. To be responsive to your environment you have to respond to your own body, including sensing and expressing your experience, including your emotions, within community. To meet the land, start with your heart. To meet your heart, start with the land.

Until next time,

Lindsay

All words and images by me, human made.

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As I step onto the trail I feel the springy cushion of Earth beneath my feet. Bird calls lift my gaze and shift my attention from my troubles to the space around me. Receiving sensory cues brings me into the present moment. I begin to intentionally engage with my senses more, knowing that this practice will bring me into alignment with the landscape around me. Visually, I see numerous plants that I know and love. I observe their current stages of growth, appreciating the impermanent blooms of flowers and the ever-present vibrancy of fern fronds. Alongside my observations of plant allies, I observe both steady and shifting aspects within myself.

I tune into each of my eight senses:

Touching rough Oak tree bark and soft Moss.

Feeling proprioceptive input from the hardness of tree roots that I step on periodically.

Hearing calls from birds hidden somewhere in the canopy above me.

Smelling earthy aromas as I stop to get up close to an epiphytic mini-universe of Moss and Ferns living on a low tree branch.

Tasting the cucumber-like taste of unfurling spring June Plum leaves.

Seeing the sporophytes of Moss reaching skyward and the downward drooping June Plum flowers.

Receiving Vestibular input as I balance while climbing a small rocky outcrop.

Finally, tuning into Interoception to sense my internal world, noting how my temperature shifts as I walk, how my mind settles, and how emotions stir as plant shapes remind me of my worries, hidden just below the surface in this moment.

I haven’t walked far, and with no destination in mind I am taking it slow and trusting the medicine of presence and intention to guide me. With my senses engaged, I allow myself to slow further by finding plants to be with. I am connecting with both the chemical language we share with plants, and the morphological language of plants, interpreting their adaptations to environmental stressors. Just as I sense my environment and make adjustments to cope, the plants sense many changes in their environments. We are both coping with changes around us, and I am here hoping to glean some wisdom from their hundreds of millions of years of adaptation.

Plants need to adapt to various stressors in their environments, including pathogens, predators, limited access to light, nutrients, water, and space, as well as, temperature changes, droughts, floods, and soil conditions. They do so through changes in shape and structure (morphology), and chemistry, as well as as through symbiotic relationships and changes in reproduction. They shift the timing of lifecycle phases affecting seed germination, flowering, and dormancy. While our human stressors and coping mechanisms differ, we are similarly finding ways to adapt. We are all embedded in the same ecosystem, locally subject to the same climate, experienced within ever-changing chronobiological rhythms as part of our experience within the coherent whole of Earth.

Our species has been adapting alongside plant species for millennia. Because of this structural coupling, we are able to connect with the chemical language of plants with no effort. We receive basic sustenance and medicinal constituents through our inherent capacity to give and receive based on our shared evolutionary history. The morphological language of plants is perhaps the softer, less direct information we can access. Though not direct chemical messaging, and more subjective to interpret, the morphological language remains accessible to us, with potent lessons for healing the emotional, spiritual, and social aspects of our experiences.

This excerpt from my previous writing about a Reconnection walk describes an observable pattern in tree morphology with analogous human application:

I observe the morphology of the Cedar trees and learn from their adaptations. The giant Cedars throughout the forest have scaly leaves at their peaks, but below in the shade, their branches no longer hold leaves. They seem to abandon these branches, covered in moss, remnants from a different stage of their lives. They no longer put energy into something that doesn’t nourish them. We too can let go of what no longer nourishes us. We may have begun something, but if it isn’t the right path or placement, then why not be like Cedar and shift our energy to where we thrive?

Along the trail, I saw two thin Cedar trees that bent notably from their starting point. Though securely rooted in their place of origin, they curved and made their main vertical climb at least a full metre to the side - presumably finding a place that suited them better. Sometimes we too need to side-step and find a better place for ourselves.

Trees have existed within Earth for hundreds of millions of years. Consider that they can live for thousands of years, and in one place! Their adaptive wisdom is immense, but we don’t always acknowledge it because it appears so differently from animal adaptation, (and we tend to be plant blind). You know what animals do during drought, you know what thirst and drought feels like in your own body. If trees experience drought they also feel it and respond by closing their stomata (openings under the leaves that allow for exchange of gases, including water vapour). They slow their growth, and show dryness in their wilting leaves. They also access water through symbiotic relationships with fungi attached to their roots. As individual trees grow they hold memories, and the story of their past shown in tree rings. As the tree species evolves it holds memory of adaptation to past stressors, shown in shapes and structures, symbiotic relationships, and chemistry. Through intentional observation we can gain adaptive understanding from species who have survived on Earth for much longer than we have. This is the morphological language of plants and the wisdom they share with us when we slow down and deeply observe their adaptations.

As I round the bend I notice a tree much larger than the others here. I wonder how long she has been standing and what she has witnessed in her time here. What creatures have nested in her boughs? What weather extremes has she endured? Her thick bark protects her, her leaves are unfurling after a winter of dormancy, her offspring are hidden in the darkness gifted them by squirrels. Her ways have helped her survive here for longer than I have been alive.

If humans experience drought we feel thirst, conserve water, and journey to springs, rivers, and lakes. The dryness may show in our skin. As we grow we hold memory of our experiences and show that story in our smiles, our wrinkles, our shapes, and body chemistry. As our species evolves we hold a collective memory, in our biochemical ways of coping and responding to chronobiology and stressors. We respond instinctually with changes in our nervous system function, including shifts in neurotransmitters and hormones. We get caught up in modern living and seemingly subtle shifts go unnoticed, but can still access long held wisdom within ourselves. We can tap into interoception and feel our body’s chronobiological rhythms and listen to needs spoken to us quietly based our species’ millions of years of adaptive development. Connection with plants, slowing down to plant speed and time scale, helps us access the long held human wisdom we each carry in the form of intuition. In the softness of plant time scales, the limitations of logic give way to the patterns of the metaphorical language.

As I reach out and run my hand along her rough bark, my analytical mind softens. I don’t need to know her name or her measurements, or anything else that my logical human mind can conjure. In relationship with her I can access a much more vast aspect of Self. Deep time, beyond my own lifetime speaks in a language beyond words. While my analytical minds help me with many aspects of life, it fails to answer certain questions that weigh on me. Tapping into my senses and slowing down to plant speed helps me access my intuition, this aspect of me that is part of the adaptive evolutionary history of my species.

The rain is coming down now. I sit with the enormous tree. Her thick bark keeps her from becoming sodden in the rain. I think of my own need to protect myself in the current challenges in my own life. The downpour of emotions and opinions from the outside world has me feeling sodden. But although her thick bark seems to be an impenetrable barrier, she is not separate from the world around her. In my mind’s eye I see the rain flowing to her roots and some of the water entering her inner world, filtered. She receives it as though through a filtering shield placed at the points where she has accepted connection. Water flows through her, but she is not taken over by the flood. I too can choose to remain connected, to listen to others while maintaining the orientation of my own internal compass. Looking up, her branches appear to go every which way, but her trunk is strong, solid, and straight as though she knows which way she is going. As I leave her presence and walk out of the woods, I too know which way I am going. I remember.

~ Until next time,

Lindsay

All words and images my own, human made.

PS - I am deep in the in-person residency of my Masters program in Environmental Education and Communication. It is a good thing this article was simmering in my drafts for many months and was finally ready to emerge! I invite you to share your own sensory experiences in nature in the comments. These embodied moments and the perspectives we gain from observing plants are key to forming our ecological identities.

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The Woven Web is a reader-supported publication. Your paid subscriptions and one-time financial contributions support my writing, my family, and further education I am embarking on to expand my skills as an environmental educator. Your comments, restacks, and hearts are also appreciated!

Written version of the Tree Adaption Meditation:

Audio version of the Tree Adaption Meditation:

The first Spiritwood entry, found here, was about Western Red Cedar.

If you read this in email, some parts may be missing as it contains many images making it long. Click through to the website to view the whole thing.

Hawthorn connects me with allies, human and otherwise, and with my own heart centre. She is the great connector of the heart’s sphere of influence, both within the human body and within the body of the Earth.

I am at a threshold. I try to be brave and take a step forward that is deeply aligned with my heart’s true knowing.

When I am uncertain, or feel stuck, when I have questions within my self, when I am unsure which way to go or cannot see the options beyond my current place, I visit with Hawthorn.

She reminds me.

…

Which way shall I go?

There are multiple paths

Just follow your heart

…

Part 1: Outward to Connection

Sometimes it appears that there is only one path.

At times my mind accepts the solidity of this option….

However, it is only an illusion.

Periodically the apparent solidity disintegrates and I access the realm of potentials.

Looking further, I see multiple pathways diverging, revealing more possibilities.

Perhaps it is only a lack of creative thinking that marries me to the single path.

Ultimately, perhaps the possibilities are endless and it is only my own mind creating limitations.

Constriction gives way to creativity. Inspiration abounds and I can see though the walls that bind me.

The liberating current flows through me. I collaborate with the web of life, dancing through the veils of time. I am the river.

Part 2: Inward to Protection

At times I question how to go forward and, if I am not centred by the strength of my heart, I may find myself overwhelmed.

The dream seems impossible. The inevitable looms.

What seemed consistent and reliable gives way to the watery world of transformative dissolution. But the magic of transformation is not palpable. Fear is nearer.

At the crossroads here there are too many options (or perhaps not enough?) and my analytical mind can’t settle on one.

Dissolution leads to disorientation.

Things feel ominous.

The boundaries have dissolved.

I feel the need to protect myself.

Within my protected core my initial reactivity gives way.

Empassioned empowerment emerges.

My right to protect myself comes from within and my natural thorns and bark are seen as a vital part of my coherent whole.

I retreat further within, shielded as I reorient.

Looking outwards, I feel feelings that are hard to describe.

A quiet centre sits amongst a raucous storm.

I feel all the things.

Communication shuts down and I take shelter from the possibilities, the conflicts, and the solutions.

In the quiet of my shelter, I accept uncertainty.

The quiet place at the centre accepts all formations including the storm, the past, the future, and the uncertainty that defines the present moment.

My heart centre is reoriented to the basic truths held in unknowing.

My heart accepts both the affirmation of boundaries and the dissolution of boundaries.

My heart accepts both the certain and the uncertain. It is at once the crossroads and the calibrated compass.

I find solidity, not in the outer manifestation of order, but in the inner acceptance of transformation.

My heart remembers.

I emerge slowly, my vision becoming more clear as I open my voice and embark on a pathway that is perhaps not new, but newly recognized.

Each step I take builds a pattern that pulses in alignment with my heart.

As I turn outward my heart’s song gathers resonance. The surrounding world echos back to me and strands in the web of life weave into my realm again, deeply embedding remembrance and love into my heartwood.

I am certain. Certain that I will dissolve again. Certain that I am not alone in that. Certain that we all know the way.

Hawthorn tells me:

Open heart

Peace

Find flow

Let go

You already know

…

…

Beneath the prickles

The flowing stream of xylem

Thorns protecting heart

…

Hawthorn helps me connect with others from a centred place within.

As a heart medicine, Hawthorn reminds me that we all have ways to protect our hearts. When we show our prickles, our unpleasant emotions, we are perhaps seeking a way to take space, to go inward to process within ourselves before we open and connect outwardly again. Both the inward and the outward are part of our healing. The inward gives us time and space to remember our own heart’s truth. The outward enables us to express and find resonance within the coherent ecological whole that we are part of.

Hawthorn, which has long been used to build hedgerows, has thorns that create a natural boundary without a stark wall. The gentle visitors, like birds, still enter the space, pecking berries and nesting. But the hedgerow prevents larger visitors from passing through.

The centre of an individual’s being is the heart space, and the place where integration occurs. It is the meeting place of the inner and outer. From the outside world we gather oxygen, nutrients, opinion, and story. What will you choose to circulate throughout your self? The heart is the meeting place of the upper and lower. The upper realms of possibility, creativity, and wonder meet the lower restrictions of physical limitations. How can dreams be manifested in this reality? Hawthorn teaches us to hold our heart with both strength and softness. We are the ones defining the present moment. We are the ones writing our dreams into the future. Our boundaries can be defined without putting up walls. Hawthorn helps us be present with both external and internal realities and to calibrates one’s compass in order to be or to take action in the current moment.

Until next time,

Lindsay

All words and images by me, human made.

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This is Part 8 in a plant awareness series focusing on plant ID, ecology, and gardening. This series parallels a course I teach in person and my aim in sharing here, online, is to inspire you to engage with plants in new ways, to shift your lens, and to increase our collective appreciation of these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

Note that reading this in email may cut off the article. Click through to the website to view everything.

I want to write to you about uncertainty and how to ask our plant allies to guide us through the hard feelings that make us seek solid ground and satisfying answers. (And that is most likely what I will write about next). But for now I am weaving in a few final threads that support plant ID skills with the intention to empower you to go ask the trees yourself.

Taxonomy doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation for being exciting….but it can be a fun realm in which to nerd out about plants and to understand ecological, chemical, and medicinal relationships. It is also the basis of the latin binomial names that we use for plants in Western culture, so understanding some taxonomy and the use of latin names can help us access knowledge about our plant allies. This article aims to make latin binomial names more accessible to aid skill development related to plant ID, and support communication for safe, effective use of plant medicines.

Naming Plant Species:

Tilia europaea and Linden are both names for the plant that is my namesake and my mind knows them interchangeably. They are just different languages. When you look at this: E and e…. your brain immediately knows they are the same letter. That is how common and latin names of plants are for some of us based simply on familiarity.

Scientific names for plants are shown as the plant’s genus (plural genera) and species. These 2 parts make up the latin binomial. So, in Tilia europaea, Tilia is the genus and europaea is the species.

Note: genus name is always shown with an upper case letter, while species name is always shown with a lower case letter.

Understanding Latin Binomials:

Names typically indicate one or more of the following:

• shape

• colour

• habitat

• historical reference

• name of person

• uses / medicinal action

It can be helpful to know a few latin names of plant parts. Words for leaves and flowers commonly show up in latin names:

Fol / Folia / Folium = leaf

Flora or flos = flower

Fruct / fruc = fruit

Cortex = bark

Semen / sem = seed

Radix / rad = root

Examples of meanings behind Latin names:

Shapes:

• Scutellaria lateriflora (Skullcap) – the plants’ flowers (flora) are aligned on the side (lateral) part of the stem

• Echinacea angustifolia (Narrow Leaf Cone Flower) – the centre of the flower is spiny like a hedgehog or urchin, referred to in latin as “echinos” and the leaf (fol) is narrow (angusta)

• Trifolium pratense (Red Clover) – the leaf is trifoliate meaning is has 3 parts

• Plantago spp. (Plantain) – means the shape of foot, the plantar or sole of a foot

• Equisetum arvense (Horsetail) - the same origin for the word equestrian as this silica-rich plant looks like horse hair

Location or habitat:

• Trifolium pratense (Red Clover) – pratense refers to meadows

• Hamamelis virginiana (Witch Hazel) – of or related to Virginia, USA

• Musa paradisica (Banana) - from paradise

• Other locations could be related to a country: Canadensis, Chinensis, Japonicus; or related to habitat: alpinus (from the alpine), arvensis (of the field), etc.

Colours:

• Echinacea purpurea (Purple Cone Flower) – the flower is purple

• Sambucus nigra (Black Elder) – has black berries

• Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove) - has purple flowers

• Other colours: alba / albus (white), luteas / luteus (yellow), etc

Historical references:

These are often related to Greek and Roman mythology, or they may be a name of a botanist.

• Inula helenium (Elecampane) - named for Helen of Troy, it is said that when she left her people she cried and each tear that landed on the ground became a new Elecampane plant

• Calendula officinalis (Marigold / Calendula) – Calendula refers to calendar as the plant blooms repetitively, each month of the calendar and specifically the first day of the month when people in Europe were called to pay their interest

Uses / medicinal actions:

• Salvia officinalis (Sage) – Salvia means to save or heal

• Althaea officinalis (Marshmallow) – Althaea means “all heal”, or something that heals (and it is indeed a Mallow family (Malvaceae) plant originating in marsh lands)

• Lavandula officinalis (Lavender) – related to “lavage”, meaning to wash

• Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) – somnifera means to induce sleep

• Papaver somnifera (Poppy) - again a sleep inducing plant

Other commonly used terms in latin names:

Vulgare / vulgaris: common. For example Fennel, Thyme, and Mugwort all have these as species names.

Officinale / officinalis: part of the traditional European monk’s apothecary

Sativa / sativum: cultivated, having a long history of human relationship. For example Cannabis sativa, Lactuca sativa (Lettuce), Piscum sativum (Peas), Avena sativa (Oat). Domesticum / domestica is similarly used.

Annuus / biennis: related to the plant’s lifecycle being annual or biennial

Why Latin?:

“Latin names” are not always actually Latin. Sometimes terms included in binomials are Greek, and various other languages show up as botanists name plants after themselves (Eschscholzia californica, California Poppy is an example of this).

Ultimately the language used is arbitrary. It could have been French, or Swedish, or Sencoten (an Indigenous language where I live), or anything else. We just need something consistent to aid communication, and it is currently a language from the dominant, colonial culture.

Taxonomic changes:

Taxonomy: the naming, defining, and classifying of groups of biological organisms

Plants don’t care about our categorizations. It is just us trying to make sense of things. Through taxonomy we aim to understand who is related to who. Originally, in Western culture, botanists observed plants and figured that plants with similar looking flowers were likely related to each other. As we have gained more genetic information, we’ve found that that is true. However, with further exploration of DNA, taxonomists have discovered that some plants grouped together could be more clearly organized with sub-groupings of plants with closer similarities. So, in the past couple of decades, some plant families have been divided, and many plants have changed in their scientific names. Of course, the plants themselves haven’t changed, they just carry on being, while we shuffle around our human concepts and categorical boxes.

Understanding these changes may help you find older literature on plants whose names have changed in recent years. (Black Cohosh, long Cimicifuga racemosa, became Actaea racemosa, for example. See also the taxonomic discussion about Rosemary, long Rosmarinus officinalis, now typically renamed Salvia rosmarinus).

Understanding these changes also helps with Plant ID. For example, the formerly huge Lily family was subdivided into numerous families all still in the Liliales order. Thus seeing shared features may point you to a cousin of the true Lilies, who was formerly in the Lily family.

Applying Taxonomic Knowledge: Plant ID

When I am identifying a plant I try to figure out what group of plants they are part of. If you can identify the category, and in particular the family, then you can access the right ID key to identify the species. (I will link a couple resources below to explore plant family patterns and ID keys.)

For example:

• If I can see that a plant has serrated margins on the leaves, and flowers with 5 sepals, 5 petals, radial symmetry, and many stamen (more than a person wants to count!) then perhaps I’ll look at the Rose family (Rosaceae) key.

• If I can see that a plant has ovate leaves with opposite arrangement and crenate or serrate margins, and flowers with bilateral symmetry and 5 petals with a distinct upper and lower lip, then perhaps I’ll explore the Mint family (Lamiaceae) key or look at more distant relatives of the Mint family in the Lamiales order. Similarly, sometimes a plant was formerly a mint family plant and is now recategorized, so seeing shared features and acknowledging taxonomic relationship is a clue in the plant ID process.

• If I suspect a particular family group that may determine how likely I am to touch or taste the plant. Some families are commonly safe and others require much more caution. For example, the Carrot family (Apiaceae) includes poisonous plants, so in our search we’d want to turn on our cautionary lens.

Remember that flowers are the basis of family groups so flowers are more reliable for identifying family groups than leaves are. This is especially true in certain families, such as the Asters with their enormous numbers and vast diversity.

Applying Taxonomic Knowledge: Medicine:

Plants that are related to each other sometimes have some similarities in chemical constituents and medicinal actions. This is certainly not a rule, but it can be helpful when deepening understanding about medicinal uses of plants and safety concerns with plants.

For example, both Yarrow and Chamomile, close relatives, contain a volatile oil that is anti-inflammatory. The Aster family is huge and I find looking at its subfamilies and tribes interesting in terms of medicinal similarities. (Yes, that’s a very nerdy rabbit hole.)

Another example is that there are numerous Carrot family (Apiaceae) plants that are estrogenic and galactagogue (increasing breast milk production). Again, this is just a pattern, and there are exceptions, like Parsley, which is also an Apiaceae but reduces breastmilk production. I wouldn’t use taxonomy as a basis to learn medicinal uses of plants, but it is a layer of depth to nerd out on once you know about plant medicines.

All these human created boxes don’t replace our direct relationship with plants, but I hope that being able to interpret the language helps your explore plants further.

Resources:

This is a fun site for searching the meaning of latin names: Dave’s Botanary

Go Botany is a great website to explore digital plant ID keys and find details about certain plants’ anatomical features.

Thomas Elpel’s website, book, and card game are all great for learning plant ID and specifically learning to recognize features of plant families. I use his card game in my in-person classes.

The ITIS Integrated Taxonomic Information System is a good place to look up current and formerly accepted lain names. See also the International Plant Names Index IPNI.

Until next time,

Lindsay

All words and images my own, human made. Photos are mine, drawings are hand drawn, by me.

I’ve tried to edit well, but autocorrect is persistently annoying in changing latin names, so feel free to tell me if you catch an error!

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This is Part 7 in a plant awareness series focusing on plant ID, ecology, and gardening. This series parallels a course I teach in person and my aim in sharing here, online, is to inspire you to engage with plants in new ways, to shift your lens, and to increase our collective appreciation of these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

My goal is not to reduce plants to categories based on their morphology! In fact, the more I observe plants, the more I appreciate their diversity and each plant’s unique qualities and spirit. Being observant and able to name things gives us tools to communicate about plants to share knowledge among humans. It also gives us tools for plant ID so we can safely and respectfully engage with plants. Earlier in this series I professed commitment to decreasing plant blindness and ensuring we maintain our human capacities for observation and plant ID. So, the goal here is to build knowledge so we can engage more deeply and be present with our plant allies.

Leaf attachments and arrangements:

In part 1, we looked at leaf shape, leaf margin, and leaf vein pattern. This time we’re looking at how the leaf attaches to the plant. You may want to read Plant ID: Leaf anatomy Part 1 before reading this part, but I think you will be alright either way! So if you’ve landed here first, carry on…..

Petiolate vs Sessile

A really important and easy-to-see feature is whether or not a plant has a petiole. A petiole is the little stem that attaches a leaf to the main stem. If there is a petiole, then the leaf is “petiolate”. If there is no petiole, the leaf is “sessile”. Based on this recent note making the rounds on Substack it seems many people are happy to be invited to observe plants!

Alternate vs opposite vs whorled

Along a stem there are nodes and internodes. Nodes are the places where body parts emerge (ie leaves, buds).

Maybe there is one leaf emerging from a node along one side of the stem, or maybe there are leaves emerging on both sides of the stem opposite each other. When we look at the pattern of leaf attachment going up the stem we may see opposite, alternate, or whorled.

Whorled is less common (think of Cleavers as an example, central photo below).

Sometimes the attachment points us to a family group for plant ID. For example, the Mint family has opposite arrangement (see left photo below). Of course that doesn’t mean everything with opposite arrangement is a Mint family plant, but it is a clue to consider. I have a book of the trees of Canada that is organized by alternate and opposite arrangements. So noticing alternate versus opposite can point you to the right ID key.

Simple vs Compound

This is a harder concept for people to grasp. When you look at the image below, on the right you see a simple leaf with one leaf blade. There is another individual leaf on the left, but it is a compound leaf composed of multiple leaflets. Both leaves have a bud in the axil where the leaf meets the stem. That bud is the key to telling what comprises 1 leaf. There is no bud at the base of the leaflets within the compound leaf.

There are a few different arrangements of compound leaves:

• Trifoliate - If there are 3 leaflets we call it trifoliate (tri = 3 and fol = leaf) (for example, Red Clover).

• Palmate - If they emerge in all directions like fingers from the palm of a hand, we call is palmate (remember we used the term palmate for vein pattern too) (for example, Lupin).

• Pinnate - If leaflets emerge opposite each other along the stem we call it pinnate (remember we used that term for vein patterns too) (for example, Roses, Peas).

  • Odd pinnate - odd number of leaflets, with a “terminal leaflet” at the end. Sometimes the terminal leaflet is a different shape than the others.

  • Even pinnate - even number of leaflets.

Sometimes the number of leaflets can help use distinguish between species. For example, in my region there are two wild rose species and 1 has 5-7 leaflets and the other has 5-9 leaflets.

Well that’s a lot of terminology. I’m going to gather up the components we covered in Part 1 & here in Part 2 in a list and then suggest you go out and start observing. There is a scavenger hunt below that use can use as a guide to start practicing.

• Leaf shape

• Leaf margin

• Leaf venation pattern

• Petiole or sessile

• Alternate, opposite, or whorled

• Simple vs compound

Plant ID Scavenger Hunt:

Download

Download

If you want to print a comprehensive image to support your observations and scavenger hunt, I recommend this one.

Until next time,

~ Lindsay

All words and images my own, human made. Photos are mind, drawings are hand drawn, by me.

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This is Part 6 in a plant awareness series focusing on plant ID, ecology, and gardening. This series parallels a course I teach in person and my aim in sharing here, online, is to inspire you to engage with plants in new ways, to shift your lens, and to increase our collective appreciation of these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

It feels a bit daunting to write about plant leaf structures because they are so diverse! On a daily basis I see plants that defy my expectations with their unique characteristics. That could make plant ID feel hard, but it also makes me feel awe. One of the things I like about studying plants is the sense that I will never know everything about them. Like a good, long-term romance, they are partners in a relationship where there is always more depth to explore.

With that in mind, my aim here isn’t to cover all possible leaf terminology. My aim is to provide a useful entry point that will support your plant ID knowledge and shift your lens to deepen your observation skills. As always, remember that plants don’t care about our categorizations, so some seem to be “in-between” categories, to have variations on human-created categories, or to have some body parts in one category and other body parts in another category. That’s ok. Their botanical description will align with their actual bodies. Our job isn’t to put plants in boxes, it is to see them as they actually are and to try to describe what we are seeing in terms that support communication and plant ID.

We all have a cartoon-like stereotype of a plant in our heads. Our minds fill in the gaps when we look at plants at a glance, making assumptions about shapes and structures. As I said in Key Observations Skills for Plant ID, we can all see the differences between basic plant structures. However, if we aren’t looking carefully and if we don’t have language to describe what we see, then we tend to make assumptions. So, this article includes useful language and some key things to look for. In this article, Part 1, we will look at aspects of a leaf, and then, in Part 2, we will look at how the leaf attaches to the rest of the plant. I’ll also offer an invitation to go and observe, with a scavenger hunt list in hand to guide you.

Leaf shape

There are many words to describe leaf shapes. It isn’t necessary to memorize them all, because any ID book or digital key will have a visual glossary. Language used may vary from source to source, with some sources using more or less technical language. For example, some books will say “heart-shaped” leaf while others will say “cordate” leaf for the same shape. Below is an image of some useful common names for leaf shapes. Don’t get too caught up in assessing the difference between two very similar shapes. Whether something is ovate or oval may be useful if you are writing a description or honing your observation skills, but for plant ID that subtle distinction will rarely send you the wrong way on an ID key. Sometimes a leaf shape is actually named to indicate that it is somewhere in-between two common shapes. For example, oblanceolate is somewhere between oblong and lanceolate.

Leaf margin

The edge of a leaf is called the margin. If it is a totally smooth margin, we call it “entire”. Another common margin that is a familiar word is “serrated”, like a bread knife. Again, some sources may be less technical, and just say “toothed”. There are sub-types of serrated, for example “double serrated” is small teeth in sets between larger serrations, and serrulate is tiny serrations. Spiny has to have firm, sharp tips like Holly or Oregon grape.

Outer tips of serrations are actually called “vertices”, and the indents are called sinuses. In the image below see how “crenate” has acute sinuses but rounded vertices? In contrast, “sinuate” has both rounded sinuses and vertices. Noting these differences hones our observation skills.

Notice that “dentate”, with the same root word as dentist, has symmetrical serrations, while serrated teeth angle to one side (typically towards the apex of the leaf). Again, there is no need to memorize all the margin names. Get familiar with a few, go look at plants, and build your knowledge as you go.

Leaf venation

Remember that most plants (excluding mosses, hornworts, and liverworts) have vasculature, called xylem and phloem. Seeing the pattern of the venation can help with plant ID. It is often easier to see vein pattern from the underside of the leaf.

There are numerous possible vein patterns. I like to teach 3 to start:

Parallel - with straight parallel lines. This is common in linear and lanceolate leaves, and particularly common in Monocots.

Pinnate - having 1 main midrib that extends the whole length of the leaf. There can be various secondary veins and there are various names for those vein patterns. This is the common “cartoon” leaf vein pattern most people have in their minds!

Palmate - multiple veins that branch out widely having all originated at the base of the leaf. They extend out like fingers emerging from the palm of a hand. This is common in broader leaves as the vasculature needs to serve all parts, or all lobes of the leaf.

It is time to go out and start observing leaf shape, leaf margin, and leaf vein pattern! There is a scavenger hunt below that use can use as a guide to start practicing. I’d love to hear about your exploration and observations! Next week I’ll add more about leaves and add to the scavenger hunt list.

Plant Id Scavenger Hunt

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• Next week: attachment and arrangement

  • Petiole or sessile

  • Alternate, opposite, or whorled

  • Simple vs compound

If you want to print a comprehensive image to support your observations and scavenger hunt, I recommend this one.

Thanks for reading The Woven Web!

You can support my work by clicking the heart button, sharing this article, or becoming a paid subscriber. You can also subscribe for free to receive more plant related articles.

One-time writer's tip

Until next time

~Lindsay

All images and words my own, human created.

This is Part 5 in a series on plant awareness focusing on plant ID, ecology, and gardening. This series parallels a course I teach in person and my aim in sharing here, online, is to inspire you to engage with plants in new ways, to shift your lens, and to increase our collective appreciation of these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

The previous article on flowers contained a lot of terminology, so this brief article is a review with some additional info on flowers.

First, let’s review the 4 key flower parts from outside to inside:

• Sepals (collectively called the calyx) surround the bud

• Petals (collectively called the corolla)

• Stamen (composed of the filament and anther, where pollen is made)

• Pistil (composed of the ovary, style, and stigma, which receives pollen)

  

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Tepals

In the Fawn Lily photo below, the sepals and petals are the same size, shape, and colour so we call them tepals. This is common in Monocots, the earliest flowering plant to evolve. The Fawn Lily has stamen with white filaments and yellow anthers. The innermost part of the Fawn Lily is the white pistil, and we can see that the stigma splits into 3 parts. It is also common that Moncots have patterns of 3s or multiples of 3s, and in this case we can count 6 tepals, 6 stamen (though it is hard to see them all in this photo), and a 3-part stigma.

“Incomplete” Flowers & “Imperfect” Flowers:

Remember that not all flowers have all of those 4 key parts (sepals, petals, stamen, pistil). If one or more part is missing, the flower is “incomplete”.

If they are missing reproductive parts (the stamen or the pistil), we call them “imperfect”.

Plants with imperfect flowers that have only the stamen are “staminate”, and flowers with only the pistil are “pistillate”.

Now here’s the mental gymnastics……The pistillate and staminate flowers can be on the same plant (like Squash or Birch). Or they can be on different plants (like Cannabis, Hops, or Kiwi). If they are on the same plant, we call that monoecious (literally “one house” because the 2 flowers types share the plant). If they are on different plants, we call that dioecious (literally “two houses”). There are implications for gardening to manage cross pollination. If you want Kiwis, which are dioecious, you need two plants - one with staminate flowers and one with pistillate flowers.

Using Flower knowledge for Plant ID

When we observe flowers we look at the size, shape, number, and colour of the various flower parts. That helps us relate what we see to a botanical description. It also points us in the direction of a useful ID key by identifying what family group the plant is in. If we can’t tell what family group the plant is in, we can start to narrow the search by figuring out if it is a Monocot (flowers parts in 3s or multiples of 3s), or a Eudicot (flowers parts in 4s and 5s or multiples of 4s or 5s).

When we name a plant using taxonomic nomenclature we refer to the Genus and Species (eg Erythronium oregonum). Beyond that we find the Family and the Order, which for Fawn Lily is Liliaceae (Lily) family and the Liliales order. Sometimes when I don’t know what family a plant is in, I consider what it “kind of looks like”. Maybe it doesn’t exactly show the Lily family pattern, but it could be a more distant relative. So, I look for distant cousins and follow the trail to the correct ID. Overtime, we become familiar with more family patterns.

Plant sexuality

Just one last comment about flowers. Some plants time their blooms to maximize the potential for cross pollination. Other plants, that are bisexual or “perfect”, are self-fertile. There are also asexual plants! Beyond that, plants have the ability to propagate themselves by cloning, which is called vegetative propagation.

I can’t regrow an arm and I can’t make my own food just by standing in the sun, so I continue to be in awe of plant intelligence and resilience! I hope this overview of flowers helps you develop your appreciation for plants and to build your plant ID skills. I will be back with plant ID knowledge for leaf parts next. There will be some articles and poetry on plant connection in the mix soon too.

One-time writer's tip

Until next time,

~Lindsay

All images and words my own, human created.

This article, with two special tools and a few herb tasting examples near the end, is an invitation to shift your lens, to engage with your own body and with plants in depth, and to increase our collective appreciation for these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

Deep Observation

Recently I wrote about key skills for plant ID, including the development of the skill of deep observation. Today I want to turn the lens and consider how we can observe plants when they are inside our own bodies. I have written in the past about the chemical language of plants and our innate capacity to receive their chemical messengers based on our shared evolution. The medicinal constituents they produce to adapt to their environmental stressors can also be adaptive medicines for us. Their constituents also affect the way they taste to us and we can become adept at observing their constituents and effects using our external and internal sensory receptors.

When I was in herb school we tasted about 150 herbal medicines as dried herbs, teas, and tinctures. We weren’t just “tasting”, we were looking, smelling, tasting, and feeling. We noted changes in our internal organs (including the digestive tract, uterus, etc.), heart rate, breathing, temperature, muscle tension, and changes in the mind and emotions. We did this as “blind tastings”, without knowing what the herb was. That allows for an unbiased observation and it is fascinating to see similarities in people’s experiences (and some interesting differences!) We learned to identify certain constituent groups and to feel deeply within our own bodies. In the years I have been teaching herbalism I have had the chance to host tastings for hundreds of students with many different herbs, and I continue to deepen my own capacity to observe and my appreciation for our multiple ways of sensing.

Our Eight Senses

Although most of us grew up learning about “our 5 senses”, that is now considered outdated. According to the current narrative we have eight senses. Beyond vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, we have our vestibular sense (related to balance), proprioception (our sense of where our body is in space), and interoception (the sense of our internal realm).

Interoception includes sensations related to our internal organs, our temperature, heart rate, and our emotions. It tells us if we are stressed, hot, hungry, etc. It tells us if we feel safe or not. It tells us if we need nourishment, a bathroom, quiet, to leave a place, or to speak up. This means interoception weaves into the conversation going on about consent, boundaries, respect, and neurodiversity. Being in touch with interoception helps us recognize our present needs and make choices that benefit both immediate and long term health and wellbeing.

There is diversity in terms of human capacity related to each of our senses, and sensory sensitivity fluctuates based on current stressors. We can miss sensory cues, be overwhelmed by sensory information, seek certain types of sensory input, or avoid certain types of sensory input. We can train ourselves to pay attention to sensory cues, or we can be trained to ignore those cues to meet external expectations. That is particularly problematic with interoception. If we make decisions based on external expectations, or use a “top-down” approach, that can mean ignoring our internal cues.

What happens we make space to slow down and feel, to interpret internal cues, to integrate those cues with external expectations, and to find ways to communicate about it? How do you feel when you choose what to do, what to consume, and who to be with based on authentic inner listening and authentic expression? Deep inner listening enables the internal realm to access the voice.

Deep inner listening also means we are more in tune with our own experiences and needs, and more able to meet others (plants and humans) from a centred place. For me the path to this understanding has come through 25 years of intuitive practices related to shamanism, yoga, and meditation, through parenting a neurodivergent kid, and through learning the art of herbal tastings. I want to focus on that last piece and share two tools I use in herbalism to deeply observe the self, and the self in relationship to plant medicines.

Two tools for deep observation and herb tastings

The first tool is a template for herb tastings. It offers cues to observe various aspects of yourself. You may find you can access some of the observation types easily, and perhaps you can revisit others later as you deepen your capacity to be present in your body with the plant as an ally. Make a tea or take a few drops of tincture and drop into observation. But first, I’d suggest checking in with yourself, so you are clear about your starting state. You need to know how you are feeling first before feeling how the herb changes you. The second tool I am sharing here is an audio recording of a meditative body scan to go through before a herb tasting. In essence, scan through your breathing, heart rate, muscle tension throughout the body, pain, temperature, internal organs, state of mind, and emotions. As you observe yourself, maximize your self-compassion. The body scan isn’t the moment to fix things, it is just a moment to be observant and witness your current state with acceptance.

I also suggest trying a herb multiple times on different days. Try it when you feel well, and when you need its support. Try it in the morning and in the evening. Then you will see what it does consistently and what changes depending on your own state of being.

Herb Tasting Journal

29KB ∙ PDF file

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Audio recording of body scan for before herb tastings:

Herb tasting examples from my own experience

Herb 1 - Nettles (Urtica dioica) tea:

Smells like ocean, seaweed. Salty, umami

Tea is yellow - brown

Tastes yummy, earthy, nutritive, I want to drink a lot fast

I feel present, comfort

Pulse feels more full

Body slightly stimulated

Herb 2 - Linden (Tilia europaea) tea

Smells sweet, aromatic

Tastes grassy, sweet, aromatic

Feels soothing, like feeling my mother’s breathing

Mouth feel - fluid feels full, leaves a dry mouth

GI soothed perhaps? Mild temple headache

Gentle vibration, calm in body, feeling heart space, feeling wanted, warm, soft, drifty, soporific

A quickening then slowing

Linden (Tilia europaea) tincture (on a different day):

Tincture colour: Amber, red

Smell: sweet syrup, cordial

Taste: sweet, watery, honey, aromatic

Feeling: Instantly floaty, heady

More aware of breath, pulsing in my face, waves of vibration

Rhythmic waves cascade over me

My senses are notably altered

My feet feel less cold. Are they or I am just focused elsewhere?

My being is fixed on the breath and pulsing waves.

My emotions are gently moving. Awareness is not as is was before.

I taste more, and everything stops as the taste enters me again. Slowing, presence, sensation all encompassing. I want to sleep, not in a slumber but by folding into myself.

One-time writer's tip

Until next time,

~Lindsay

All words and photos are mine, human created.

If you enjoy hands-on plant observation you may also enjoy this article:

• For into about the clinical herbalism program I teach in, visit Pacific Rim College.

• For a self-paced community herbalism program online, visit Pacific Rim College Online and use this code for a 20% discount: Hounslow20

Today’s poem is an invitation to relate to plants within your own experience of blooming, and, as always, to increase our collective appreciation for our plant allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

quiet and dark within

enveloped in sepals

the nestling place

from the outside,

glimpses of colour appear

between and behind closed doors

though it appears that animation is suspended,

a subtle internal vibration begins

dynamic stillness

the sepals, unhurried

patiently tend the unfurling

protecting the quiet nesting within

what begins as a pause

continues into a sweet, quiet emergence

meeting the growing chorus of vibration from beyond

the doorway is revealed

with sepals now spread open

full colour reflects the sun’s vibrancy

boundaries dissolve,

and what was once a silent potential

is now resonant and coherent

all things embodied as parts of the whole,

the sepals once a structure protecting the edge of self,

now the guardians of the threshold

Thanks for reading The Woven Web! You can support my work by clicking the heart button, sharing this post, or by offering me a one-time writer’s tip. Become a free or paid subscriber for more nature-inspired poetry and articles on human-plant relationships.

Subscribe now

One-time writer's tip

I’ll be back with more on flower and leaf anatomy soon.

Until next time,

~Lindsay

All words and photos are mine, human created.

You can read about flower anatomy in a previous post called Plant ID: Flowers.

This is Part 4 in a series on plant awareness focusing on plant ID, ecology, and gardening. This series parallels a course I teach in person and my aim in sharing here, online, is to inspire you to engage with plants in new ways, to shift your lens, and to increase our collective appreciation of these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

I am here in the shady woods and Spring’s leaves are unfurling. Hawthorn’s blooms are yet to emerge, her sepals still enclosing her full expression. Yet upon looking upward I see she grows much further than I expected, and in the sunshine, just barely within the reach of my vision, her flowers bask in the sunshine living fully within the realm of pollinators. Autumn’s birds patiently await her berries. Not all flowers bloom at once. Ecological rhythm dictates the right timing. The same is true for you. If you catch word that others are blooming but find yourself nestled in the protective shield of your own sepals, take rest and know your bloom time is coming soon.

As I said when I wrote about plant evolution, plants do not care about our categorizations. We define and describe them, but their beauty and diversity exceeds our taxonomic language. We can learn to observe, identify, and describe with the ultimate goal to connect more deeply.

A long time ago botanists figured that if two plants had flowers that looked similar then perhaps they were related, and so taxonomic systems were developed with family groups of plants with similar flower anatomy. Once we got genetic information, it was apparent that that was correct. Genetic details have led to numerous debates and numerous plants being shuffled around in the taxonomic structure, but it is typically more about making new family groups when we realize who is more closely related to whom, rather than correcting straight up errors. While there are some family patterns we can learn related to leaf structures, flowers are much more reliable and consistent for recognizing family groups for plant ID.

Before we look at flower anatomy, let’s just solidify the purpose of a flower. Is it to bring you joy? To inspire poetry? Well, maybe. But flowers also function to:

• exchange pollen

• to allow fertilization

• to produce seed

Flower anatomy

You can choose to read this section and / or listen depending on how you learn best.

When we observe flowers for plant ID, we start at their outside and work our way in. The outermost whorl of a flower is composed of sepals. That’s the part that encloses the bud before it opens. The group of sepals is called a calyx.

Inward from the sepals, we find the petals. The group of petals is called the corolla.

The sepals and petals are the non-reproductive parts of the flowers, and they are collectively called the perianth. Inwards from there, we find the reproductive parts.

The stamen is composed of a stalk, called a filament, that holds up the anther, which is where pollen is produced. The stamen is considered the male reproductive part of the flower.

The centre most part of the flower is called the pistil. It is the female reproductive part, consisting of the ovary, a stalk called a style, and the stigma, which is the part that received the pollen. When pollen lands on the stigma, it travels down the style and into the ovary, which is where fertilization occurs.

Want to see that image again?

Some plant species have flowers that have all 4 of these key parts (sepals, petals, stamen, and pistils). If the flowers have all 4 parts, we call them “complete”. They could be missing any of those 4 parts, and then we call them “incomplete”. There’s a little more to consider with incomplete flowers, but I will revisit that next time.

Flower anatomy examples in Photos

That’s a whole lot of terminology, so let’s just look at a few flower images and call it a day. Remember, when we look at flowers we start at the outside and work our way in. We count parts and observe sizes, shapes, and colour. See the photo captions for descriptions of the flower’s parts.

You might notice that often the number of stamen relates to the number of petals, being either the same number, or double. Also, when there are 11 or more stamen, we just say “numerous”, and eventually we just say “many” because no one is sitting around counting a hundred stamen (see the Rose above, and the Poppy above).

Recently I wrote about plant evolution, including the difference between Monocots and Eudicots, which has to do with the numbers of flower parts. You can review that here to build your knowledge of flower anatomy.

I’ll be back with a little more on flower anatomy and then leaf anatomy and other plant related essays soon!

Share

Until next time

~Lindsay

All images and words my own, human created.

Want to learn plant anatomy in more depth and also learn about herbalism? I teach part of a self-paced, online 80 hour Community Herbalism Certificate with Pacific Rim College Online. I teach 3 courses within the program: Botany & Plant ID, Backyard Gardening & Cultivation, and Seed Saving. Some of the other courses in the program are taught by my elder mentors. You can use this discount code to enrol any courses or programs from the online school: 20% Off Code: Hounslow20

This is Part 3 in a series on plant awareness focusing on plant ID, ecology, and gardening. This series parallels a course I teach in person and my aim in sharing here, online, is to inspire you to engage with plants in new ways, to shift your lens, and to increase our collective appreciation of these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected. This article focuses on plant evolution, with fact and a little poetry blended in. The aim is to inspire connection and support you in learning plant ID skills.

Part 1 in the series can be found here.

There are almost 400 000 known plants on Earth today. As far as we know, they all evolved from a common ancestor, a green algae. Over many generations plants adapted to land and evolved from spore-bearing reproduction to seed-bearing reproduction. About 470 million years ago plants colonized land. After another 100 million years, seeds developed. Flowers evolved about 300 million years ago.

Where were you when the first plants evolved? What part of you was there with them?

Deep in a thicket, lost in time I am surrounded by ancient beings. Time stands still as I step forward. My steps leave deep furrows. Markings remain behind me showing my path, just as the plants’ bodies show markings of their evolutionary path.

The path narrows and I am closed in with Horsetail, Skunk Cabbage, and others. They tempt my curiosity, drawing me into the present through the portal of awe. Any attempt we humans make to categorize them fails to fully encompass their intelligence, diversity, and dynamism. For they are not frozen in time, but very much alive. They are adaptive and adapting. Their stories are ancient, and yet they are, as yet, unfinished. A story with no conclusion and a mythology without clearly defined chapters. Keep this in mind as we use words to try to define and understand them. They care not for the boxes we wish to put them in. They just are, and have been for much longer than our systems and languages.

Let me preface this mini botany lesson with a comment about why you should care (aside from the fact that you’d die without plants). If you are trying to identify a plant, it helps if you can narrow down your search by recognizing what category the plant is in. That leads you to important questions to consider and the right plant ID key.

A few botanical basics:

Most plants are multi-cellular organisms. Their cell walls are made of cellulose and each cell has a distinct nucleus. They are autotrophs, meaning that they make their own food (autotrophic translates as self-eater) through photosynthesis. You, by the way, are an heterotroph, meaning that you eat others.

Plants typically absorb the blue and red ends of the light spectrum, and not the green part of the light spectrum, which is why we see them as green. Their green pigment, chlorophyll, enables them to capture sunlight energy, which they then convert to carbohydrates, such as glucose, for their own energy storage needs. They actually use the same molecule we do for energy processes, called ATP. However ATP is a short-term energy carrier, whereas glucose can be used for longer term storage.

Plant evolution: Sporophytes (Moss, Ferns, Horsetail…)

The first plants had no vasculature so they had to be really small. This includes Mosses. They reproduce by spores (so we call them sporophytes). After that, plants evolved to form vasculature so they were able to grow larger with the ability to transport water and nutrients. This group includes Horsetail and Ferns. They are sporophytes with vasculature. Whereas you have veins and arteries, plants have xylem and phloem. Xylem brings needed nutrients in and phloem delivers carbohydrates to plant cells that need energy. What part of you once flowed through a plant’s xylem?

Plant Evolution: Naked Seeds (Conifer trees)

Eventually plants evolved to produce seeds, and we call those plants spermatophytes. The first seeds were “naked”, not enclosed in a fruit, and they are termed Gymnosperms. There were four groups in this step of plant evolution, and the predominant one remaining on Earth today is the Conifer trees (Cedars, Pines, Spruces, Firs, etc). Ginkgos and Cycads are also types of Gymnosperms.

Plant Evolution: Enclosed Seeds (Flowering Plants)

Later seed-bearing plants evolved to produce seeds enclosed in a fruit. But I want to be clear here. Botanically speaking, a fruit is not always squishy and delicious. It can be dry and inedible. The key is that the seed is enclosed. Typically the seed develops from the ovule (the female genetic carrier of a flower) and the fruit develops from the ovary. So, the ovule within the ovary becomes the seed within the fruit. (There are other components and variations of fruit types, but that’s a story for another day.) The plants that bear seeds enclosed in a fruit are called Angiosperms, but they are also commonly called “flowering plants”. This is the largest group on Earth today and they are very diverse.

Identifying Flowering Plants:

One last categorical distinction is useful to consider, and this one is particularly useful for plant ID skills. The first Angiosperms (flowering plants with enclosed seeds) evolved with simple, often straight structures, and flower parts in 3s or multiples of 3s. These are called Monocots.

The last group of Angiosperms to evolve, the Eudicots, have more complex branching structures and flower parts in 4s and 5s, or multiples of 4s and 5s. So, if you are looking at a flower and it has 4 petals, you can narrow your search to this group, called the Eudicots.

Monocot is short for Monocotyledon, and Eudicot is short for Eudicotyledon. A cotyledon is a seed leaf. When you plant a seed the first thing you will see emerge is either 1 seed leaf (because you planted a monocot), or 2 seed leaves (because you planted a eudicot).

Plant Evolution in a nutshell:

Okay, let’s look at all those groups in one snapshot:

• Sporophytes with no vasculature (Mosses, also Liverworts and Hornworts)

• Sporophytes with vasculature (Ferns, Horsetail)

• Spermatophytes with vasculature and naked seeds (Gymnosperms, like Conifers)

• Spermatophytes with vasculature, flowers, and enclosed seeds (Angiosperms)

  • Angiosperm Subgroup of Monocots (simpler structures, flower parts in 3s)

  • Angiosperm Subgroup of Eudicots (branching structures, flower parts in 4s or 5s)

Again recognizing the group narrows your search for plant ID. From there you can observe specific structures, count parts, and identify a family group to access an ID key. I’ll be back with flower anatomy (and flower poetry) next.

One time writer's tip

Until next time,

~Lindsay

All words and photos are mine, human created.

I teach part of a self-paced, online 80 hour Community Herbalism Certificate with Pacific Rim College Online. I teach 3 courses within the program: Botany & Plant ID, Backyard Gardening & Cultivation, and Seed Saving. Some of the other courses in the program are taught by my elder mentors. You can use this discount code to enrol any courses or programs from the online school: 20% Off Code: Hounslow20

This is part 2 in a series on plant awareness focusing on plant ID, ecology, and gardening. This series parallels a course I teach in person and my aim in sharing here, online, is to inspire you to engage with plants in new ways, to shift your lens, and to increase our collective appreciation of these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

When I teach plant ID we focus on three key components:

• Developing deep observation skills

• Learning the language of botanical anatomy

• Using a plant ID key

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Developing deep observation skills

As I mentioned in my last article on plant blindness, people tend to “just see green”. There are some key things we can do to see with more attention and precision.

• Connecting with our senses. Slow down and pay attention to what you hear, see, and feel. Then focus in on a specific plant to observe with more presence. (I will soon be writing more about senses!)

• Try to draw the plant. Yes, even if you find drawing hard. It isn’t about creating something beautiful, it is about seeing clearly. When you have to draw something, you realize what you haven’t truly observed in detail. Where exactly does that stem emerge from? What shape is the edge of the leaf? How many petals are there? One day on a field trip I had asked some students to draw a plant and someone called me over for help. She was frustrated and said, “This plant has this pattern up here, but then this other pattern down here.” Sometimes plants do differ in shapes and structures in different parts of their bodies. In this case, I helped the student untangle the mystery and follow the stem down to the ground. We found that it was actually two plants entangled with each other! When we try to draw things we realize what assumptions we have made and we become better at observing.

• Learn the language of botany. This helps us name plant parts, and once we can describe what we are seeing, we can make distinctions and observe more subtle differences between species.

Learning the language of botanical anatomy

This will be the focus of some of my articles in the coming month. When we learn the terminology for plant structures we can access botanical descriptions and use plant ID keys to confirm plant identities.

You can all see that there are some key differences between the two drawings below. If you have the language to describe them, then you can find the right section of your plant ID book to identify the species you are looking at. (Yes, I drew those myself on paper. Yes, I find drawing hard. Yes, I do it anyway. You can read about my process of drawing plants here.)

In the next month I will share basic botanical terminology. I suggest learning some basics, then trying it out, and then learning more terminology. Plants are incredibly diverse, so you will likely come across anatomical variations you don’t know how to describe and then you can go back and learn more. The great thing is that most plant ID books have great visual glossaries to support you in the field. Picking plants apart is also a great way to build both your knowledge of plant anatomy and your observation skills.

Using a plant ID key

There are a number of different types of plant ID keys, but the most common is the dichotomous key. As the “di” in the name suggests, the key gives you 2 choices. You decide which of the 2 descriptions fits the plant in question and follow the flow to the next pair of descriptions. Eventually that leads you to a particular species.

Once we have observed keenly and applied our knowledge of botanical anatomy, we can work through an ID key. I have seen some plant ID books where all the white flowers are on one page and all the yellow flowers are on another page. That could seem appealing, but if the plant isn’t in flower then you have nothing to go on. It may seem like a great entry point for beginners since we all know colours, but you really only need some basic anatomical knowledge to get started with a book that categorizes plants based on common structural differences. For example, I have a tree ID book that separates deciduous trees based on whether they have opposite or alternate leaf attachments.

When first using a plant ID key, I suggest trying it with a plant that you already know so that you know if you get lead astray. That way you can focus on learning the process. When I teach people how to use an ID key, we start with trees.

There are two other common techniques for plant ID that I want to touch on.

Sitting with 1 species

This is what most people seem to think about when I talk about plant ID. They assume I am going to help them gain familiarity with particular species. What I really want to do is teach the knowledge and skills needed to identify various species. That being said, I think it is great to focus on 1 plant. Sit with it, observe it, draw it, read a botanical description of it. Visit it in multiple seasons. Compare its structure to that of its close relatives and “look-a-likes”. Then you will know that species well.

Plant ID apps

I am not sure how to talk about Plant ID apps without grumbling a bit. I rarely use them, but have on occasion found them helpful. I don’t have data on my phone (gasp….I know) so I can’t look plants up digitally in the field. I try to ID them using my knowledge and a book. Sometimes I can’t and if there isn’t a human to ask, then an app can come in handy. However, and this is a big however, I think it is important to be able to see the suggested ID and look at the full botanical description to confirm if it is actually the correct identity. Not all plant ID apps are accurate. Personally, I am also interested in developing and maintaining human cognitive skills and human-plant relationships.

I’ll be back soon with an article on plant evolution followed by a few shorter, digestible articles on plant ID knowledge. I also have more coming related to human-plant relationships in the spiritual realm, including how to deeply observe plants within your own body.

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Until next time,

~Lindsay

All words and photos are mine, human created.

I teach part of a self-paced, online 80 hour Community Herbalism Certificate with Pacific Rim College Online. I teach 3 courses within the program: Botany & Plant ID, Backyard Gardening & Cultivation, and Seed Saving. Some of the other courses in the program are taught by my elder mentors. You can use this discount code to enrol any courses or programs from the online school: 20% Off Code: Hounslow20

This marks the first in a series on plant awareness focusing on plant ID, ecology, and gardening. This series parallels a course I teach in person and my aim in sharing here, online, is to inspire you to engage with plants in new ways, to shift your lens, and to increase our collective appreciation of these allies with whom we are deeply interconnected.

When you look at this photo what do you see? Years ago, when I was a canoe guide camping in a forest, a guest told me that when she looks at a patch of plants she “just sees green”. I don’t think she is alone in that.

When I look at this picture I see, a rich, nourishing environment with moist conditions, probably in the shade. I see Buttercup, Cleavers, Wood Avens, and Nettles. I see medicines to reduce inflammation, support the human lymphatic system, and iron-rich leaves (among other medicinal potentials!). I see the Rose family, a relative of coffee….and friends of mine….

Our starting point is to consider how we are in relationship with plants. Perhaps we can think about how we rely on them to begin with. How have you used plants so far today? I’m going to leave that open and ask you to leave a comment about your observations. Perhaps you will be surprised about some of the observations other people have!

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Plants are so ubiquitous in our lives and so vital to our survival that we often take them for granted. We have plant blindness. Plant blindness was first defined by James Wanders and Elizabeth Schussler in 1998. They defined it as:

One theory about the cause of our plant blindness is that we are wired to focus on animals for safety and protein. Their movements catch our eyes and our ancestor’s nervous systems reacted with arousal to keep safe or further the hunt. In contrast, when our ancestors found an abundance of nourishing plants, they felt assured that they could slow down, be fed, and stock up. We may not totally understand why we are plant blind, but it does mean that people tend to respect plants less, understand them less, and protect them less. We could not exist on Earth without plants, so perhaps it is time we appreciated and understood them more.

Plants have incredible intelligence that often goes unseen by humans. Plants are capable of communicating and learning and they have the ability to sense sound, light, touch, and chemical signals akin to taste and smell. Botanical research on plant intelligence and ecology is challenging our assumptions about what learning and communicating looks like in living organisms. We recognize that animals adapt to heat, cold, and water availability through their behaviours, but we don’t always recognize the quiet, subtle adaptation of plants. I’ll revisit plant adaptations in a later article, but want to share a couple interesting examples now.

When you are stressed you produce cortisol and other catecholamines that enable you to activate protective mechanisms in your body. Plants are similar in that they change their chemistry to adapt to stressors. While they are always working on producing basic primary metabolites, like glucose and cellulose, they sometimes make additional chemicals, called secondary metabolites. These chemicals enable them to do various things to protect themselves. For example, producing an alkaloid or more tannins could make themselves taste more bitter or astringent or be more poisonous to certain plant predators. The chemicals they produce to protect themselves are often the constituents we use as medicines. In a sense their shifting chemicals communicate with us, telling us about ripeness, nutrient availability, and medicine. Plants also produce chemicals that communicate risk to neighbouring plants. So, they are responding to and communicating with other plants and animals in their environments. That sounds very much like you, doesn’t it?!

Plants are also responding to non-living, abiotic, components of their ecosystem. They shift their metabolism drastically when they respond to environmental factors to initiate dormancy or germination in certain seasons. They shift their behaviour and chemistry depending on water availability, temperature changes, and light conditions related to day and night or summer and winter.

They are embedded in chronobiological cycles and they know how to adapt to circadian and seasonal changes, just like you.

One could argue that plants are more in touch with their chronobiological rhythms than many humans are! We have pushed our bodies to ignore our cyclical signals in order to fit into societal norms. Perhaps we need to relearn rhythm from our plant allies. They are indeed highly intelligent and able to communicate with us. I want to leave you with an invitation to consider how plants are actively sensing and responding to their environments, including both living and non-living aspects of the ecosystems in which they are embedded.

There is so much to explore related to plant intelligence! I will leave a few resources below and revisit plant adaptations later in the series. I am also leaving a link and discount code for a self-paced online course I am part of (see below).

PS: if you are curious about all the things we use plants for each day, you can watch the video linked below or read this old post I wrote that relates to that.

One time writer's tip

Until next time,

~Lindsay

All words and photos are mine, human created.

Further learning:

1. An 80 hour Community Herbalism Certificate with Pacific Rim College Online. I teach 3 courses within the program: Botany & Plant ID, Backyard Gardening & Cultivation, and Seed Saving. Some of the other courses in the program are taught by my elder mentors. You can use this discount code to enrol any courses or programs from the online school: 20% Off Code: Hounslow20

2. Visit and explore Monica Gagliano’s research on plant behaviour and cognition.

3. A really fun and entertaining video on neuroscience and plants. The most amazing part is right near the end of the 9 minutes video:

https://www.ted.com/talks/greg_gage_electrical_experiments_with_plants_that_count_and_communicate

4. A fun, short video on plant blindness (but I challenge you to think about how you have used plants so far today, before you watch this):

https://www.botany.one/raising-awareness-of-plant-blindness/

The largest trees in this forest are at least 600 years old. Douglas Firs tower over us and it takes about 10 of us to circle around them hand in hand. Fire tore through this forest many decades ago and the tough bark of the Douglas Firs shows just a little black scarring.

As we walk a hundred metres up the trail the wide base of a Western Red Cedar sprawls next to the trail. She is magnificent and invites all who come by to marvel at her height and girth.

However, walking around her base reveals a most spectacular and surprising sight…..

Her broad base is hollowed out from the fire. Clearly she has been through a lot in her life. (Have you too?) However, as we look up it is clear that she is still very much alive. She is growing wild greenery above us that reaches for the light.

She is strong and stable, and she holds both the memory of the forest’s past and the vibrancy of countless creatures living on her in this present moment.

Her neighbour stands by her side having been through the fire with her. Together they remember and side by side they grow in the peace of each other’s company.

What we see of them depends on what viewpoint we take. From one angle we see tough, protective bark. From another angle we see a burnt core. And from yet another angle we see luscious greenery.

Is this not how we view each other? Are you seeing my thick skin and stubborn strength? Walk around to my heart space and see my scars and tired eyes. Are you a Spider camouflaging in the dark black soot of my burnt out base, or are you a Raven perched in the sunlight resting on my vibrant luscious leaves?

And what about you? In all the years that your heartwood has grown, what stories have shaped you and the way you show up in the world? What fires have you endured? What has shaken your world and revealed your hidden depths? What strengths did you find you had when the stressors of the world raged upon you? Who have you sheltered in the hollowed out caverns of your being? What beauty has been revealed in your scar patterns?

~Lindsay

I’ll be back with more in the Reconnection series, more Spiritwood Tree Visits, and some Plant ID and gardening articles before too long.

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This post shares the practical aspects of the experience, which involved creating a herbal medicine garden with a group of students, as well as collaborative facilitation, food gardening, and interpersonal applications of Permaculture Principles. You’ll find lots of photos below as well as highlighted examples of Permaculture Principles in action. If you are reading this in email, you will likely need to click through to see the whole post. First, here’s the before and after images of the garden site.

Group Engagement & Design Web

I hear a lot of people talking about community action and it’s on my mind too. So before I get to the nuts and bolts of the garden building process, a word about the experience of bringing people’s energy together to co-create something on the land. The members of our group stepped up alongside me and my co-facilitators bringing their passions, skills, knowledge, curiosities, questions, and a willingness to be uncertain and courageous. From the first day onward I felt significant shifts happening in the group dynamic that invited me to reflect on and actively practice community care. I had been looking for ways to engage in social applications of Permaculture Principles and the group process offered plenty of ripe ground to re-imagine, co-create, enact new ways to be together. Through the intention to be present with challenges we enact the Permaculture Principle: Creatively Use and Respond to Change. I feel incredibly grateful for the uplifting support of my co-facilitator, Delvin Solkinson, who offered his heart, time, and energy to co-create a group experience full of spaciousness, dynamic connection points between people, and a vibe promoting life-long co-learning. Delvin’s wife Grace Solkinson also led parts of this course and other courses in the program. I had the opportunity to learn some of what she shared from her vast knowledge of natural building and animal care (related photos below).

Our group engagement on the herbal medicine garden started with a twelve step design process created by Looby McNamara, led by Delvin. Delvin guided us through the steps, inviting us into reflection, brainstorming, and ultimately to bridge us from the vision I had of a herb garden to an action plan. A few of the steps are shown in the images below, including: Vision (identifying the core goals of the project, coming into alignment with the overall vibration of the project); Helps (what supports exist within and around us); and Limits (what challenges exist and how can they be reframed and overcome).

You can also see a few of my drawings from the design process, when I was imagining the garden shape and size, the “before” image of the site, and a inspirational photo of another garden created with other students years ago. Assessing the site and assessing group resources and vision is part of enacting the first Permaculture Principle: Observe and Interact. We start with observation, and then move toward action. We also observe again later, enabling continued learning through pausing and reflecting.

Emergent Design & First Actions

After the design process we stepped into our first actions. With multiple skills and interests within our group, and multiple projects happening alongside the herb garden, each person joined the work party where they felt best aligned. This enabled us to enact the Permaculture Principle: Use and Value Diversity. I also found this stage involved a lot of interpersonal connection work, self—reflection, and listening, drawing us into the Permaculture Principle: Apply Self-regulation and Accept Feedback, which requires lots of compassion, self-compassion and is perhaps one of the principles most readily interpreted in social applications.

Small design changes were made as we unearthed and overcame land-based obstacles allowing for emergent learning and design adaptations. The size of the garden was manageable, and this in addition to the use of human power, wheelbarrows, and shovels aligns with the Permaculture Principle: Use Small and Slow Solutions. (For transparency, we did benefit from a machine being used to move mulch materials closer to the garden site.)

The garden is 13 feet in diameter (for the 13 moons of the year) with 4 pathways and 4 beds for the 4 seasons and 4 directions, which enables people to use the space for ritual work in alignment with nature’s cycles.

The next images show the site cleared, measured, and first layers laid down, which was wet newspaper to draw worms up into our garden (turning bad news into good news).

Building the Garden Beds

In the centre of the newspaper layer, we lay down a newsprint paper with our group members’ wishes (Freedom, Joy, Abundance, Sovereignty, Acceptance…). Our next layers were cardboard, including extra layers of cardboard on pathways, and then compost, soil, and manure mulch. Our material choices reflect the Permaculture Principles: Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services and Produce no Waste. In the images you can see the adjacent cob structure built by past student groups, and the driftwood edges used for the herb garden. Wood edges support future soil building and microbial diversity, aligning with the Permaculture Principle: Use the Edges and Value the Marginal. The pathways through and around the garden also link adjacent spaces and encourage people to enter and enjoy the herb garden. This also aligns with the Permaculture Principle: Integrate rather than Segregate. We also enact that principle socially by enabling people to contribute to projects with varying skills, and to come and go from adjacent projects in alignment with their energy levels and interests.

The site is almost flat, but with a slight slope, so one of our group members, Elijah, dedicated himself to shoring up the downslope side for water and soil retention in the beds (images below). He made use of scavenged wood, rocks, mixed mud, and a whole lots of focus, heart, and mindfulness. His work is a great example of the Permaculture Principle: Catch and Store Energy. Meanwhile others students contributed to plant selection, researched plants, and worked together to choose plant placements. There was also a lot of hard work ongoing in the adjacent food gardens, and we met and tended to chickens and quails (images later) with guidance from Grace Solkinson.

Planting and Planning for Future Care

Eventually plants were planted and drip lines laid, using natural patterns guided by the Permaculture Principle: Design from Patterns to Details. Choosing plants adapted for the climate, planning for water, building soil, and using mulch enables us to proactively care for the future life of the plants.

A group of students took the lead to decide on plant placement. They chose to locate plants based on similar medicinal uses to facilitate further learning about herbalism. They created 4 beds as follows: Digestive herbs, Respiratory and Skin herbs, Herbs for the Nervous system, and Herbs for Protection (you can read the herb list in the acknowledgments at the bottom).

With plants in the Earth, straw mulch was layered on top of the drip lines. Images below show the garden maturing, as well as the adjacent food garden maturing. The students grew broccoli, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, and some other annuals, as well as establishing some perennial vegetables new to the garden site. They also tended to pre-existing berries, shrubs, fruit trees, and herbs. If you look back in the photos you may notice that the adjacent hoop house was totally overgrown with grass. The group worked hard to reclaim the space for food production and you can see it in full use below.

While I typically wait a year before harvesting from newly planted herbs to give them time to establish, we enjoyed teas from small personal harvests to connect with the plants, and were otherwise able to harvest from other pre-existing herbs. This means we engaged with the Permaculture Principle: Obtain a Yield.

Adjacent Projects & Celebration

Other projects the group engaged with included: extensive food gardening, using multiple natural building techniques to build a chicken coop and rotational grazing system (guided by Grace Solkinson), maintaining perennial gardens, and raising chickens and quail. Within the 9 month program they also learned about hydrology, soils, Indigenous land care, mycology, botany and plant ID, herbalism, bioremediation, and ecological restoration.

These last photos show some of the fruitful outcomes of the experience: quails eggs, pollinators visiting the new herb garden (bee on Wood Betony flower), peppers and tomatoes from the garden, a pizza party using the newly restored Cobb oven, a therapeutic snuggle with one of Grace and Delvin’s Angora bunny, and some tools used for our final day of harvest, celebration, and reflection.

My gratitude to:

• Emma, Elijah, Dylan, Giuseppe, Anne, Brynn, Sarah, Pollen, and Michelle for co-learning and bringing your hearts, knowledge, and hard work to the project

• Delvin and Grace Solkinson for your uplifting support, expertise, and dedication, and gift of your beautiful design deck

• James and Yvonne for hosting us, supporting the garden vision, and coordinating the program

• the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples for stewarding the land for millennia before our time here

• Looby MacNamara’s inspiring Permaculture design cards and books

• Max, my husband, for supporting my engagement with projects like this

• The plants who teach us and offer their medicines: Leonurus cardiaca (Motherwort), Verbena officinalis (Vervain), Scutellaria lateriflora (Skullcap), Achillea millefolium (Yarrow), Calendula officinalis (Calendula), Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary), Hyssopus officinalis (Hyssop), Lavandula officinalis (Lavender), Althaea officinalis (Marshmallow), Agrimonia eupatorium (Agrimony), Thymus vulgars (Thyme), Echinacea purpurea (Purple Cone Flower), Viola tricolor (Heart’s Ease), Nepeta cataria (Catnip), Filipendula ulmaria (Meadowsweet), Salvia officinalis (Sage), Alchemilla officinalis (Lady’s Mantle) and Stachys officinalis (Wood Betony)…..and others….

Lastly, gratitude to all the Permaculture teachers and practitioners who have shared their insights and knowledge with the world. For learners: the Ethics of Permaculture are Earth Care, People Care, and Future Care (or Fair Share). The Principles of Permaculture are: Observe & Interact, Catch & Store Energy, Obtain a Yield, Apply Self-Regulation & Accept Feedback, Use & Value Renewable Resources & Services, Produce No Waste, Design from Patterns to Details, Integrate Rather than Segregate, Use Small and Slow Solutions, Use and Value Diversity, Use Edges and Value the Marginal, Creatively Use & Respond to Change.

~ Lindsay

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Five of the six Haiku shared here were jotted down in the forest today. They are all examples of either my intentional sensory engagement or my awareness of the adaptive wisdom of the wild species living there, which ties into Reconnection series I’ve been sharing.

Conifer trees have been on Earth for 300 million years. Imagine all that their ancestors have lived through! I recently shared a photo and comment about Moss online and to date almost 3000 people have liked it. (I’ve never experienced that kind of online engagement before and not nearly so many people engaged with my meditations or my more serious commentary on Ecological Economics!) Nevertheless, I am so glad that so many people appreciate Mosses, which have been on Earth for approximately 450 million years. Moss knows more than we do. How else would it survive on this planet for so long? What can we learn from the adaptations of Mosses and Conifers?

Paraphyllia are leaf-like tissues that cover the stems of some Moss species. They have a number of functions, including water retention. Unlike Conifers, mosses do not have vasculature. Without vascular structures to transport water, they keep their bodies very small. They also differ in that they reproduce by spore, rather than by seed. The evolutionary stepping stone between Conifers (grouped with other Gymnosperms) and Bryophytes (Mosses), is the vascular spore-bearing plants, like Horsetail (Equisetum spp.) and Ferns.

…

How do you feel when you caresses or rest on Moss?

Smell of oozing pitch

Running down riveted bark

A tree heals its ache

…

This is a great example of a plant adaptation that humans also make use of for medicine. This is my other recent writing about humans connecting with medicinal constituents from plants.

One of the things I really appreciate about the online community of writers and artists is the chance to connect with people who live on the lands that my ancestors came from. There is something that quivers in my heart when I see photos, read about rituals, or hear about forest conservation in my ancestral lands in Europe. There is a lot of grief, longing, and love that I feel related to experiencing disconnect from ancestral lands, connection to local lands here, and knowledge of how colonization creates loss of culture, language, and a sense of place.

This morning as I observed standing snag trees, unearthed root systems, and decomposing “nurse” logs, a question arose in my mind. What will I leave to nourish future generations?

…

~Lindsay

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This guided meditation is intended to bring awareness to your inherent connection with plants and nature as a whole. The conceptual background was offered previously here: Reconnection: The Chemical Language of Plants. There is an audio guided meditation first, and for those more inclined to reading, there is a written invitation below that.

Exchange Meditation: Audio invitation

Before listening to the recording find somewhere to sit comfortably where you can see some plants nearby. If possible sit outdoors, but otherwise choose a place where you can look out the window at plants. It is helpful if you can sit on the Earth, but remember that wherever you are, the Earth is beneath you (even if there is material from a building between you and the soil!)

This was originally offered in a forest, though any landscape is great especially if it is an ecosystem that you know, whether that be wild or a cultivated garden. You may choose to close your eyes, or just cast your gaze downwards if that feels better for you where you are.

If you aren’t able to listen to the mediation, it is also offered in a modified format written below.

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Written invitation:

Before you read on, take a moment to tap into your senses and feel your physical body. Listen to sounds near and far, feel the weight of your body on the Earth, and feel the movement of your breath.

Acknowledge that your breath is an exchange between you and the outside world. Acknowledge that you are in constant flux, transforming your current state, your current chemistry through giving and receiving.

Somewhere beneath you is the surface of the Earth. It may be immediately beneath you, or below your chair. It may be deeper, under floor boards, framing of a building, or concrete. No matter where you are, somewhere beneath you is soil. Soil is a complex web containing both non-living components, like minerals, and living organisms. Imagine the soil structure and activity beneath you. What creatures are living below where you sit?

Hundreds, thousands, millions of active living cells. Creatures, living and sharing space in that place where you are on Earth. You are surrounded by organisms, organisms whose ancestors co-evolved with yours. They make up a vast network, weaving roots, fungal hyphae, plant cells, insects, and worms. Weaving a web that extends beyond you, all around you. Imagine that place beneath you and from that central point, see a network of roots and fungal strands extending beyond you, for feet, for metres, for kilometres, for miles around in all directions. A dendritic connection. Strands of communication.

That web connects millions of organisms and enables them to share information and nutrients. Many of those organisms are vital decomposers that help recycle nutrients. Nutrients that you may later ingest in your ongoing cycling of giving and receiving. The web extends all throughout the Earth.

You are part of that web.

A network of organisms. Symbiotic. Communicative. You know the language of their communication.

Smelling the plants and soil, you receive their chemical signals.

Breathing in, anywhere you are on Earth, you receive the oxygen from the trees.

Every cell in your body is influenced by plants.

As you eat and take in plants they join your body. As you smell and taste, you receive from the Earth.

The Earth influences you.

You influence the Earth as well. As you breathe, your exhalation travels to become part of a plant.

As you walk and put your weight on the earth, other creatures sense you.

The plants can sense you too. They can hear, smell, taste, feel, and sense many chemical communications.

You leave carbon dioxide, skin cells, hair….all to be recycled and absorbed.

Your hair may become part of a tree.

Your blood carries the oxygen that was once in the trees.

Your body cells are made of plants you ate and the tea you drank.

Those plants gathered nutrients from the earth.

You are the Earth.

The rain that falls on you was once inside a plant.

The water you drink was once inside a plant.

You are the rain, you are the water flowing through the plant’s cells.

The plants gathered sunlight energy, converting the sunlight energy for storage that you also make use of.

Your heart beat is fuelled by the sun via the plants’ efforts.

You are the sun.

Your life force is that of the Earth and the sun, our star.

Your tissues absorb the life force around you - your permeable skin, your permeable digestive tract, your permeable lungs.

The boundary between yourself and other is a filter.

An exchange.

You are all that you see and experience here.

Look outward to see the plants, the ecosystem around you.

You are that. We are that.

Take a moment to breathe, sigh, hum, sing or laugh.

Feeling your body, its weight, your hands, your feet, your heart, acknowledging that you are Earth, and part of this vital exchange within the web of life.

Go forth through your day knowing that you are connected.

…

~Lindsay

All words written and spoken are my own. All photo taken by me.

All made by human heart and intelligence.

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When I start plant walks and plant ID classes, I sometimes start with the question: how have you made use of plants so far today? Pause and think about that for a moment……

Did you think about the food you have eaten? The tea or coffee you drank? How about the clothes you are wearing (cotton, hemp, bamboo, linen), the ingredients of your soap, lotion, toothpaste? What about the wooden furniture (your bed? your chair? your table?) or even the wooden frame of the building you live in? The paper book you read, the paper you wrote on? Toilet paper? How about the oxygen in the air you are breathing?

We are part of an ecological community that exchanges materials. The plants and other photosynthesizers are the producers in any ecological community. I cannot extract my food directly from the sun, so I am reliant on the adaptive intelligence of the photosynthesizers. We are the consumers, meaning that we eat the producers and other consumers (assuming you eat animal products). We are also reliant on the decomposers, who eat materials that were part of the bodies of producers and consumers and convert organic compounds into inorganic compounds for the producers to use again. And the cycle continues, reciprocally. We are not always cognizant of the intimate connections we have within our ecological community, but I hear from many people who have a growing curiosity to explore these relationships.

In 2023 I had an idea for a series of in-person sessions offering an experiential learning series about our inherent connection with plant allies and natural ecosystems. After a year of dreaming and brewing, I invited small groups of people to spend time in the forest. Each session included a brief conceptual introduction, a silent sensory walk, a guided mediation, an individual sit in the forest with herbal tea and an invitation to create art or poetry. Most people chose to be silent for the whole of each two and a half hour session. Some people were able to attend all three sessions, and while the three sessions do conceptually build on each other, I tried to make each experience stand alone. What follows is the very first, foundational conceptual piece to start the series in a new virtual format.

In the audio clip below I talk about our shared language with plants, which I describe as chemical and morphological. We have an innate capacity to understand plants, to exchange with them. We know their language but we may not be aware of how integrated we are in our communion with them. To bring awareness to this we perhaps need to slow down, but we also need to redefine communication.The invitation I am offering here is to consider the chemical language humans share with plants, which all of us are involved in even if we aren’t cognizant of it.

The Language of Plants (in audio):

This is conceptual and therefore can be enjoyed any time, but it makes a great precursor to a nature walk.

Our place in a coherent whole

I think it is important, and perhaps eye opening, to point out that chemical messages from the plants are enabling something from within ourselves to emerge. When a chemical messenger from a plant activates a human receptor site, it isn’t “making” something happen in the human body that is foreign to us. It is reminding our bodies to do something that we already know how to do. That chemical is not foreign to the body. In fact, the chemical, the plant, the human body are all parts in one integrated system. If we step back and take a systems lens, we remember that the boundaries between self and other, human and plant, are subjective. The co-evolution of ourselves and the plants occurred within a coherent whole. That coherence enables communication because we simply are structurally aligned with the plant species based on our shared history. Over time we’ve come part of a shared language system. Language is a system of communication, and communication is a way of imparting information. Chemical exchange among plants and between plants and people can clearly be seen as a way of imparting information (for example, information about safety, ripeness, etc). That chemical exchange, that language, was developed over millennia as our ancestors and the plants’ ancestors co-evolved. When we receive chemicals from plants our bodies “know” what to do with them. We have suitable receptor sites because of our structural alignment, the shared history of our physical development, and that enables physiological changes within us. But again, remember that the action occurring within the your body is part of the inherent physiological capacity of your body….it’s just that your body is part of that bigger coherent whole.

I was recently walking with a new friend and she mentioned having spent 6 years developing her relationship with plants. She was interested in deepening that connection and noted that 6 years isn’t very long. I paused with her to remind her that in fact she has been developing relationships with plants for millennia! We are so deeply interwoven with the plants as we breath, smell, lay in our wooden beds, wear our cotton clothes, read our paper books, eat, and otherwise ingest their bodies that we don’t always realize how deep the relationships are. Really what she was speaking to was her intention to attend to those relationships. When we choose to attend to the relationships and pause to remember and to observe, we realize the depth of our historical connection, the complexity of our current relationships, and our vast capacity to receive from our plant allies.

When we walk in the presence of plants (which is everywhere we go on Earth), we exchange chemicals with them. If you walk in a forest, for example, you leave with oxygen in your body that was once inside a tree. As you depart the forest, you also will contain volatile oils that the tree offered. It was part of the tree’s protection for its microbiome, but you breathed it in and it is now acting in your body (likely as an anti-microbial, anti-spasmodic, or relaxant). When you leave the forest you are also leaving something of yourself behind. The carbon dioxide you exhaled is absorbed into a tree. Perhaps you slough off some skin cells without realizing it. Or perhaps, making your reciprocity intentional, you choose to leave a strand of hair at the base of a tree where you sat and had a cup of tea. That hair will decompose and perhaps part of it, part of you, will be absorbed by the tree and end up 20 metres up in the tree’s trunk!

At this junction, I will pause and remind you that you already know the language of plants. It is part of you and you have the anatomical equipment to communicate with plants. I gently nudge you to find a pause to attune to your senses, walk with awareness of your place in the coherent whole, and contemplate the chemical language we share with plants.

Coming up on the Woven Web:

• A guided meditation to accompany this, the Language of Plants.

• More on what I call the morphological language of plants, including explanation and examples of the lessons I’ve learned from reading plant structures and ecological adaptations.

• Sensory observation as an intentional tool for building relationship with plants, including explanation, a guided meditation for herbal “tastings”, and a template for observations.

• How your whole self, emotions and all, are part of the coherent whole.

See below for links to the previous essays and meditations on this topic.

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~Lindsay

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PPS - all photos and words are mine, written solely with human intelligence, fuels by the sun via plant intelligence

One time writer's tip

As I said above, there are three parts of the Reconnection series, so there will be more coming beyond what I have described here. You can also check out the pieces I have shared in the past:

What I’ve been writing:

Screaming in hushed tones

Poetry into the void

Voice echoing back

I almost never review my stats on Substack. I just don’t. Because it doesn’t feel good, because I write for other reasons, and because I don’t find meaning in those numbers. But I did peek today. It seems that I steadily hang out with just under 300 subscribers and just under 700 followers. I have written less short essays than I have brewed in my heart and mind. Perhaps some of those topics will emerge in my writing next year. As I reflect I am gathering threads of topics that are hiding in the shadows.

I have been mostly writing poetry this year, and I am still loving Haiku. Perhaps I will collate my favourite Haiku as a post…..and I’ll just keep writing new ones.

My most appreciated poetry and essays of the year:

What I’ve been reading:

I have a somewhat overwhelmingly long list of saved articles on Substack. There is so much shared that I find interesting and inspiring, but I can’t keep up. That’s partly because of parenting, and partly because I reserve night time reading for printed books.

Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass

I read this very slowly over the course of a couple years with a large pause in the middle. When I picked it up again, I devoured the remaining parts. For those of you who have read this, you know that although most of the sections could stand alone as essays, the real beauty emerges in its entirety. I have so much to say about this, but rather than writing it all here I will consider revisiting it in writing later while I attempt to enact the lessons in my life. For those of you who haven’t read it, it is the the Silent Spring of our time and describes a reconfiguration of perspective very much needed in this world. I have been thinking about narratives related to our relationship with the rest of nature, extractionism, what sustainable really means, and how the framework of reciprocity helps us see our roles in both giving and receiving within our web of life.

Reciprocity

What does it mean to us now?

Seeing our true place

Robin Wall-Kimmerer’s Serviceberry

This is brief yet meaningful. It got me thinking about neighbours and community. This is another topic I may revisit in the coming months. I have been reflecting on how we need to make community wherever we happen to be with whomever happens to be there. One day perhaps I’ll tell you about how all the old folks on our street call my husband when they need help.

Just across the road

Old lady who I don’t know

Now I catch her tears

Pema Chodron’s The Places that Scare You

I’ve been very slowly reading this for about a year and a half now. I stopped to practice the Maitri meditation and took many months to incorporate that into my daily practice. It is now deeply part of not only my meditation, but also my relationships in the world. I am more able to hold people in compassionate care and more able understand that their perspectives have emerged from their experiences, whether they are similar or different from mine. I have touched on the next section of the book, on Tonglen, but that practice is still an infant within me.

May all beings rest

As anger and fear subside

Hatred turns to love

Fiction

I read a lot of fiction too. I don’t get up after my 4 year old falls asleep and I don’t take my phone to bed, so it is all reading at night. I read a lot of fiction that is well researched to provide deep insight into the culture in which the story takes place and the history of that culture. Through literature I have learned about Iran, India, Afghanistan, Central Asia, China, and escape from colonial slavery in the US. This week I finished reading Elif Shafak’s 10 minutes and 38 seconds in This Strange World. Set in Istanbul, it is an account of 10 minutes and 38 seconds unfolding at someone’s time of death and the lifetime of memories that emerge in that time.

In the dark quiet

I travel so far and wide

Through doors on a page

What I’ve been listening to:

We are the Great Turning Podcast with Joanna Macy and Jess Serrante:

https://www.soundstrue.com/a/resources/we-are-the-great-turning-podcast/

I am so grateful that Jess and Joanna created this before Joanna passed on. It is beautiful to hear a conversation that encompasses awe for the world and also the depth of grief that can be felt. The gift of Buddhist teachings is beautifully applied to approach our collective environmental challenge with true presence, attuning at once to fear and sorrow and possibility and love. I have yet finished the series and if you choose to listen as well, please let me know your thoughts and feelings about it as you go.

Your words find my ears

A language that speaks to me

Returning presence

What I’ve been doing:

Well, this just feels like way too much to encompass here and is perhaps fodder for future writing. Here are a few things that come to mind from this past year.

Herbalism & Plant Medicines

As usual, I have been teaching herbal medicine classes and clinics. Along with plant ID sessions, I particularly loving the evening herb tastings in the virtual herbal energetics class I teach.

The Herbal Energetics class is 45 hours over 4 months, and is online. I love that students come from all over the country (and more broadly the world sometimes) and from the safety of their own homes they get to sink deep into herbal connections when we taste teas and tinctures. My intention with the course beyond learning systems and languages of energetics, is for students to get the chance to hone their skills of observation, to deeply feel the plants and learn how to interpret their inner intuitive language. We do that together, seeing, hearing and holding each other in a deep remembrance of our capacity to feel and capacity to connect with plants, whose ancestors knew our ancestors. If you are interested in deepening your observational skills, I have a recording to offer and some tasting examples to share.

Sink in to yourself

And attune to your senses

Meet me at your heart

Permaculture Program

This deserves a series of posts to fully express! This year I shared in teaching a Permaculture program. We have a farm-based classroom with a garden to practice, explore, and learn in. I have been teaching the herbal component of the program for numerous years and deepening my understand of permaculture along the way. This year I also co-facilitated a portion of the program’s gardening course with Grace and Delvin Solkinson. They are some of the most inspiring people I’ve ever worked with. Their enthusiasm, positivity, and perseverance is amazing! They enact permaculture principles in all they do, facing challenges while uplifting all around them. This year I was keen to learn more about the social applications of permaculture, and I got to engage with that while also designing and building a new herbal medicine wheel and growing food with a group of learners dedicated to 10 months of in-person learning.

Planting medicine

In the land and in our hearts

Seeds for the future

Parenting:

Raft your boat to mine

In rough waves I’ll steady you

Anchored deep in love

Despite all ramblings about plants, I actually spend a lot of time parenting. I spend a lot of time snuggling. I also spend some mornings each week playing at preschool with my daughter. It is a little overwhelming for me to be in the company of a dozen 4 year olds, but it is also heart expanding and yet another avenue for learning to care.

A year ago, in January, my son started school again after 3 years of homeschool. It was a big deal for me, a major internal reconfiguration. However, parenting him has been 10 years of major reconfiguration! As I help him find his place in the world, I have also opened my own voice in a new and powerful way. Learning how to advocate means learning how to be unmasked, how to communicate, how to love unconditionally, how to feel deeply, how to accept, and when not to accept. It is fantastically hard, and fantastic. Below is a note I wrote back in November. I don’t write a lot about Neurodivergent parenting, so the online ND community perhaps doesn’t know where I am. Thus with the algorithms as they are, this note, which brought me tears to write, reached exactly one person’s heart (thank you over there in Thailand for seeing me in this. You are a consistently kind presence here). For context, I used to have to be there with my son all the time. Now he has grown in his independence. One day, just as I walked in the door, he called distressed. I turned around to go find him. Upon arrival, I spotted him instantly. I know him. I have a lot of practice at being there for him. When I want to protect him from those who don’t understand him, the Maitri practice helps ground me. When it all feels like too much to hold, I ask to be held by the biggest love I know. When I am lost the Earth is there beneath my feet. To hold him, she holds me.

What I am planning on doing next year:

Time will tell, things will emerge that I have not yet seen. I do have a few key intentions, and now I have a list of writing intentions to work with!

I will keep up with poetry and add more short essays on the wheel of the year, nature connection, ecological narratives, permaculture, and herbalism. One of the projects dearest to my heart from 2024 was the Reconnection series I created. It was an in-person offering, but I have slowly shared pieces of it online, so I will leave you with this link to explore both writing and an audio recording. There are 3 parts to this, and perhaps I’ll post the remaining two meditations this year. There will definitely be more of this type of offering from me in the future as it is nearest to my heart.

If you’ve made it this far, please accept my heartfelt thanks and consider clicking the heart below before you drift on. May you be held and anchored, uplifted and inspired in the days that come.

~ Lindsay

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PS: I’ll leave you with this as a compass to guide us into the next turning: