THE world of plants is so vast and varied that botanists have yet to classify all plants on Earth.
To date, scientists have classified approximately 275,000 different plant species. The number of cultivated plants in use by gardeners and farmers is estimated between 28,000 and 30,000 species, hybrids and varieties.
The wide range of growing environments on Earth, the multitude of plant adaptations and evolved traits makes them one of the most important types of living organisms on our planet and plants are unique to Earth and are not found anywhere else in our solar system. By virtue of that statistic alone, the monetary value of plants should be higher than the price of gold. After all, tomatoes taste great with salt, but gold - hmmm, not so much. Here are some unusual statistics about the beautiful plants found in the gardens of Earth.
Hardhack (Spirea douglassi), which is native to British Columbia and found throughout our region, is a fast-growing deciduous shrub with pink flowers born atop wiry stems. Although hardhack is much despised by gardeners because it is hard-to-hack out of the ground, it was used by early native peoples as brooms, as hanging racks to dry fish and as a medicinal plant to treat diarrhea and bowel problems. A poultice was made from the leaves to treat skin tumours and ulcers. It is interesting that hardhack was used to treat diarrhea and bowel problems because the same plant can cause stress and bowel problems in gardeners unfortunate enough to have hardhack growing in their gardens.
The non-recreational species of hemp (Cannabis ruderalis and Cannabis sativa) have been grown by many cultures for approximately the last 12,000 years and used for textiles, paper and food. This important fibre crop has a long history of productive use in the old and new worlds and its use was widely accepted until the 1950s when the moral majority in Canada and the U.S. banned its production. It is interesting to note that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp on their plantations, Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper and Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. When U.S. sources of "Manila hemp" (not true hemp) were cut off by the Japanese during the Second World War, the U.S. Army launched the "Hemp for Victory" campaign to grow hemp in the U.S. Due to its importance for sails and rope for ships, hemp was a required crop in the early American colonies.
The oldest living thing in existence is not a giant redwood tree, instead it's a bristlecone pine named "Methuselah," which is growing in the Schulman Memorial Grove in the White Mountains of California and dated to be 4,600 to 4,841 years old.
The grove was found in 1954 and 1955 when an extensive search for old trees was carried out from California to Colorado by Dr. Edmund Schulman and his assistant C.W. Ferguson. They found the oldest trees at elevations of 3,048 to 3,354 metres growing in inhospitable locations with little soil or moisture. The trees showed large areas of deadwood surrounded by thin strips of living bark. Schulman was known to be awed by these trees, often speaking with amazement about their ability to live so long on so little. Schulman wrote, "The capacity of these trees to live so fantastically long may, when we come to understand it fully, perhaps serve as a guidepost on the road to understanding of longevity in general." Edmund Schulman died of a heart attack at age 49 before his research was fully published. Data by Schulman and his colleagues was reported in National Geographic in 1958, bringing worldwide attention to the White Mountains. That same year, the U.S. Forest Service established the 28,000-acre Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, naming a very special area, Schulman Memorial Grove, in honour of his contribution to the world.
The dandelion, much hated by modern society, is the only flower that metaphorically represents the three celestial bodies of sun, moon and stars. The yellow flower resembles the sun, the fluffy seed head resembles the moon and the wind-dispersed-seeds resemble the stars. The root, leaves and flowers of the dandelion are useful for food, medicine and dye for colouring. Until the mid-1800s people would pull grass out of their lawns to make room for dandelions and other useful weeds like chickweed and chamomile that could be eaten or used to produce other products.
Dandelions have one of the longest flowering seasons of any plant on earth. Dandelion seeds can spread by wind as far as two kilometres from their source. Every year, North Americans spend millions on lawn pesticides to keep monocultured lawns looking uniform which requires 25 per cent of the continent's water supply to keep the lawn green.
Todd Major is a journeyman horticulturist, garden designer, writer, consultant and organic advocate. For advice contact him at stmajor@ shaw.ca.
