NO MORE ANONYMOUS STRANGERS

Digital Maps to Nature Literacy: Part 4 of 5

PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE

SO: Your APP for ID has given your subject a name. Now what?

Giving nature’s non-human beings names should be just the beginning of a relationship.

Having been introduced to a moss or a tree by the snapped image and then to possess a name for the thing–this is an invitation and an obligation to take the next steps in making friends of the planet’s non-human beings.

No plant or animal you find in Nature is abstract or theoretical. That Cardinal Flower is as real and as alive and as much connected to Earth by history of kinship and community as you are. Don’t you want to know more, having been introduced and on a first-name basis now?

Finding an orange flower along the roadside in June, your digital tool can tell you that it is known as Butterfly Milkweed. And next year, riding along that same road in early June, you’ll know to be expecting it, and also have an idea generally for where this particular plant tends to be found–field and roadway margins and open places, not deep woods or marshes. Now you’re becoming ecologically aware across the seasonal cycles.

Swamp Milkweed and pollinators

And as you look more closely at the milkweed’s unique features that set it apart from, say, the Daisy family, you might begin wondering why those tiny flowers have that odd configuration of petals that are different from the petals on a sunflower. Armed with the name, you’ll dig deeper and understand the amazing method of pollination that sets the milkweeds apart from almost all other flowering plant families.

Milkweed Pollination: A Series of Fortunate Events

You’ll discover that the milkweeds produce a white sap (and then have the AHA! recognition that this toxic milky sap is the origin of the plant family’s common name) that gives Monarch butterflies, who feed on these plants, protection from being eaten.

We’ll conclude this five part post next Saturday. See you then!

Part One: Tools To Meet Our Needs

Part Five: Nature Literacy is in Our Hands - April 22, 2023