#seeddispersal

Bloodroot is an ephemeral Spring plant in eastern North America - it blooms briefly, leafs briefly, and is dormant for most of the year. It grows perennially in slowly expanding colonies connected by a reddish rhizome that oozes orange sap traditionally used medicinally and as a dye. Bloodroot is also spread by ants who bring its seeds into their nests where they feed the attached fleshy, oily bits (called elaiosomes) to their larvae and leave the seeds to sprout in the fertile debris of their abode. We didn’t have a very harsh winter, but across the world we are now moving indoors or at least away from other people, stockpiling foods and toilet paper. Let’s imagine we were ants: after all the anxious consumption of the coming weeks and months, what will be the seeds that we leave behind that will feed us in the future? What are we sowing as we hibernate in these nests? I was just swallowing a chopped up clove of garlic meditating on my gratitude to this plant for its healing properties, and gratitude that we had the foresight, knowledge, health, and land on which to plant garlic patches in our backyard and at our farms, and gratitude that the plants are now sprouting and building future medicine from eating sunlight and soil. Some figurative seeds I’m planting now are: revising my farm plans to include even larger medicine crops than usual, like calendula, skullcap, elecampane, mullein; planning to harvest extra wild nettles this year (without taking more than our share); taking and rooting cuttings of the elder trees in my life (some of which come from cuttings I did a decade ago in a park in Brooklyn) and teaching others to do the same; and putting up even more of our crops - canning San Marzano tomatoes, dehydrating more peppers, okra, mushrooms, freezing more molokhia, kale, collards, callaloo. I’m excited to help others to learn these things too, and to provide literal seeds for so many of these things. Again: after all the anxious consumption of the coming weeks and months, what will be the seeds that we leave behind that will feed us in the future? What are we sowing as we hibernate in these nests? #symbiotic #myrmecochory #seeddispersal #bloodroot https://www.instagram.com/p/B9spVqVgqXQ/?igshid=xjcjrgryec04

Mangos growing like weeds after mango season. We don’t give ourselves enough credit for the amount of seeds we disperse. Just like birds dropping seeds after a meal, we naturally do the same. Walk while you eat after picking a mango and you’ll simultaneously be full filling your roll in nature by bringing that seed to a new location as it was intended. It got to the point that I had to make a rule that no seeds be randomly tossed in the yard. Last year I had to transplant out at least 2 dozen mangos and close to 30 mamey apples! ・・・ #growninhaiti #Mango #sprout #propagation #weeds #abundance #haiti #ayiti #reforestation #agroforestry #foodsecurity #natureprovides #balanace #seeddispersal #growth https://www.instagram.com/p/CC5t_VxlDui/?igshid=1pwjrlgi9x6sx

A blue-gray tanager collecting seeds from a Bromeliaceae, perhaps to line a nest? If so, this is a great seed dispersal service. #birds #CostaRica #biodiversity #tanager #birding #birdsofinstagram #bromeliaceae #seeds #seeddispersal #ecology #rainforest #centralamerica

Many bats eat fruits or nectar, and thus are key species for seed dispersal and flower pollination. They are able to cover large distances during their nightly foraging flights and are willing to enter deforested areas. You can hear seeds, like this caribbean almond, dropping on the roof on a nightly basis. I’ve even had to weed out dozens of sapling from underneath the trees where they eat because there were simply too many. Goes to show how little work we actually need to do in order to live in abundance. The main reason I’ve found, apart from construction, as to why we don’t have forests all around us is unfortunately commercial farming. Charcoal production to a large extent is a byproduct of clear cutting land in order to farm and provide for our ridiculously wasteful cities. If we were all able to provide for ourselves and use our resources more efficiently, there wouldn’t be a need for clear cutting acres of land just to grow corn and beans 😐 Every season I watch as my neighbors till saplings right out of the ground to labor in a field for months for the smallest amount of profit. Not realizing how much more abundantly they would love if they allowed the forests to grow and simply cultivated enough for themselves. A lot of people might not want to hear this but we all are responsible for the current state of our environment by not taking the personal responsibility of being a proper caretaker of our home 🌎 ・・・ #growninhaiti #bats #pollination #seeddispersal #reforestation #bethechange #haiti #ayiti #caribbeanalmond #agroforestry #biodiversity #letitgrow #selfsufficient #abundance https://www.instagram.com/p/B007HealYyF/?igshid=1eb6lpydorbtj

Explosive seed dispersal from a wood sorrel seed pod! This tasty Oxalis species grows wild and as a weed in much of North America. While it looks like clover, it tastes like lemon or pickle. Don’t eat too much - oxalic acid is an antinutrient that blocks the absorption of calcium. #explosiveseeddispersal #oxalisstricta #oxalis #seeddispersal 👌 by @dustsunn https://www.instagram.com/p/BofS8ahlxsy/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4mtim9zosqur

Dandelion is an Aster, and like many other Asters including Lettuce, Elecampane, Artichokes and Cardoons, it spreads its seeds on feathery parachutes in the wind. It’s name is inspired by the French word for lion’s tooth: dent-de-lion. See @toothofthelion for a well-named local herb supplier, and @atticapothecary_ for a great post recently of the importance of spring tonics, especially dandelion root tea for helping your liver remove junk and get ready for spring. #dandelion #dentdelion #taraxacum #herbalmedicine #plantmedicine #seeddispersal #asteraceae (at Delaware County, Pennsylvania)

Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) is out and flowering. Apparently, it adds a peppery flavor (like Arugula) to salad, and can make a good pesto, which I'll try before wiping it out from the fields. When it goes to seed and you walk through it, the seeds explode and fly everywhere. #seeddispersal #ballisticseeddispersal #ballochory #hairybittercress #cardaminehirsuta #eatyourweeds (at Newtown Square, Pennsylvania)