We have a small but growing patch of these outside our windows. Bees, butterflies and moths love them - as do our purple and gold finches when they go to seed. They eat them right up, spilling just enough for some new blooms to enlarge the patch for next year. We can sit for hours watching the birds and the bees on them. Take some time, plant a few, and watch as nature enjoys them -- almost as much you will!
17
@Pennsyltukyian
The bunnies very much enjoyed the ones I planted. At least I think it was them because the deer don’t usually come right up to the side of the house where the beds are. Ah well...
5
Once again, thank you, Margaret Rinkl. You are amazing!
In college I needed a science credit and randomly chose Field Biology. The class literally changed my life. I had biology in high school, of course, but had never learned about Ecology.....not recycling cans, the capital-E science of Ecology. Talk about woke! The complexity of nature on every level, from the intricate veinage of a leaf, the microscopic hairs on the leg of an insect, to entire ecosystems composed of a vast orchestra of mutually dependent species, all the features, behaviors of each living thing, as integrated as clockwork through evolution and natural selection.......it all continues to blow my mind to this day.
The greatest sin, in my opinion, is to waste, destroy and/or take life for granted on this one known living planet in the universe. We are so preposterously blessed, yet so careless, so oblivious. It will be our downfall.
Every child should have a thorough education in how nature works, the fact that so few people do is a big reason we're destroying our greatest blessing. Please, teach your children well.
61
"Moor. Vale. Bog. Glade." All common words in my youth. Magical? One person's dream may be another's ho hum, or even a nightmare. Walking on a shaky bog is scary; boiling water for tea over a turf fire during a break from saving the turf, magical. For flowers growing on pure rock, check the famous Burren in Co. Clare with all its wild flowers. Or check poet Michael Longley's: Burren Prayer.
3
Lazarus plants remind me of a local (Virginia) name for the Resurrection Lily. They’re called Nekked Ladies. Both names come from the appearance of the stalks which are completely bare when the pink flower is blooming on top. The spring foliage of the plants die off and it seems like the death of the plant until in mid summer the blossoming stalks seem to rise from the dead.
I love the old country names.
7
“Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and slaughters a visible Nature without realizing that this Nature he slaughters is this invisible God he worships.” — Hubert Reeves
9
Thanks MR, another great and inspiring essay, as always.
The best.
2
Keep on writing Ms. Renkl! Despite some of the convoluted, negative and over-analytical-"baked" comments here,to borrow an over-used cliche, Hope Springs Eternal! We have to keep on keepin'on to protect our planet and its precious inhabitants-all of them; and despite appearances and events to the contrary! To do any less is unthinkable.
2
Beautiful.
3
My parents and many other volunteers started the Memphis Wildflower Society that successfully secured 20 acres of Tennessee woodland fenced off inside a city park. Wildflowers were transplanted from rescued sites, like freeways under construction, and the outcome is a perpetual example of local woodlands for future citizens to enjoy. Access is limited for maintenance and a few visitors so the process of the woods is what is being conserved. We knew about coneflowers in the 1950s when we visited middle TN and rescued plants from construction sites to transplant into local private gardens. The members did this work because they appreciated the beauty of the plants, how they grew and wanted to save that for the future. Thanks for the good article, much appreciated! And thanks to all the local wildflower groups who have made a difference in their respective communities. One person with a good idea is all it takes.
4
As one who has helped manage another rare Echinacea, the smooth coneflower at Penny's Bend in Durham, NC, I can testify to the role poor soils and rocky ground have played in supporting plant species that otherwise would have been plowed under. Renkl misses an opportunity, however, to highlight the fact that it's not enough to preserve some land where these rare species still grow. Often, periodic fire plays an important role in keeping these sun-loving wildflowers from getting shaded out, and invasive species sometimes require targeted use of the herbicides Renkl has in other columns categorically rejected.
One commenter mentioned civil war battlefields. These offer tremendous opportunities for habitat restoration, particularly since their authenticity would be increased by managing them as the more open habitats that have become rare. I've sought to convince those managing a site of the largest surrender of the Civil War to value the rare wildflowers that have survived on its very unusual, unfarmable soils, but as yet to no avail.
Renkl's column echoes a conclusion I reached after visiting the NY Historical Society's exhibit on the environmental history of the Hudson River: most of what we value in life exists only because someone fought to save it.
10
Great idea for battlefields. Illinois has original prairie patches, island of unplowed rural cemeteries surrounded by eroded plowed farm land
4
The question is not "recovery," per se -- and much of what will be lost in extinctions will never be recovered. It is, rather, "how will humans and other species thrive in a planet that become too hot for human life in large swaths of land that are now inhabited by tens and hundreds of millions of people?" And what will it mean to the human species and the others, when much of the coastal areas are under water, 100 years from now Where will a hundred million people go? What happens when the Himalaya glaciers, which provide water to millions of people, vanish? Will they buy bottled water for $4.00 when their monthly earnings are $100 or less?
The planet will "survive," and species that can will flourish. The problem is, the human species may not.
4
@Bill Fordes: Hardy folk our of the Hindu Kush and the Blue Stacks may survive. But I won't see it. I'll try to celebrate the days and joys that remain.
2
I don't disagree but if the natural world is to survive in any authentic form rather than a small number of select curated ones we have to radically change how we approach nature. We can't pick and choose, waging war on species we consider inconvenient or dangerous, whether insects, microbes, rodents, coyotes, whatever. All life forms have their place. What we ned to pay more attention to, instead of merely trying to exterminate anything we have taken a dislike to, is how and why imbalance develops and the nature of the delicate connections between disparate life forms.
To do so requires us to stop regarding ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution, with all other life forms subordinate to our whims. We need to learn some humility and to acknowledge that other life forms vastly surpass us in many ways. If you want to see unconditional love, you will find it in animals not humans. If you want to see sophisticated social organisation or amazing feats of engineering that include climate control look to insects. Ants developed crop farming and "animal" husbandry some 40 million years before we did. The list goes on and on.
But we overlook these things, and our utter dependence on the rest of nature, because we still embrace the egocentric value system of young children. We still believe and act as if the world revolves around us. We haven't yet developed a sense of proportion. We have made vast strides but far greater change is needed.
5
My favorite story of an animal thought extinct that was rediscovered is the San Quintín Kangaroo Rat. A beautiful and friendly species, that I mourned (thankfully needlessly) since I first heard about its demise. I was lucky to be tangentially involved in its rediscovery. Read more: http://terrapeninsular.org/en/kangaroo-rat-thought-to-be-extinct-is-rediscovered-in-san-quintin/
4
Planting cone flowers perennial gardens is very popular around the country these days. Is there any attempt to commercially produce this particular species? I have any number of traditional and native flowers in my New Hampshire garden and like to see encouragement of additions of local ones wherever possible. Here we have lots of native asters which vary from white to deep purple and they tolerate all sorts of tough conditions which is great when one has no irrigation system other than rain and an occasional use of a hose and sprinkler.
1
@Susan in Maine
Hi, Susan! I’m a Nashville native, and I learned of Tennessee purple coneflower several years ago while attending graduate school at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. My professor, Dr. Dwayne Estes, is a cedar glade expert, and he had the honor of meeting Dr. Elise Quarterman before she passed away. Also, he named a wildflower after her as it is a cedar glade endemic: Gratiola quartermaniae (Limestone hedge-hyssop).
Anyway, to answer your question about Echinacea tennesseensis being cultivated for commercial trade, yes. There are a couple of native plant nurseries I know of that grow this special species: GroWild, Inc. of Fairview, TN and Overhill Gardens of Vonore, TN.
If you ever get the chance to come to the Nashville area, visiting one of our protected cedar glades should definitely be on your list of things to see. I highly recommend the glade mentioned in the article, Couchville Cedar Glade. It is a beautiful example!
Also, check out Southeastern Grasslands Initiative to learn more about the globally rare cedar glades and other types of Southeastern grasslands! Dr. Estes started the nonprofit in order to help conserve these exceedingly rare habitats. Thanks! 💗
5
@Rebecca - I purchased a Tennessee purple coneflower plant over a decade ago at the Cheekwood Wildflower Show. To my delight, it comes back every year.
3
Lovely. It may give many in Tennessee the curiosity to go look...and preserve!
1
Thanks for this wonderful article. We have three Tennessee coneflower plants that my husband bought at a native plant nursery because they said 'rare' and the common echinacea did well on our property. They're doing fine here in western NC, but I think I need to give them a little bit of lime.
2
In wildness is the preservation of the world.
2
https://www.tn.gov/environment/program-areas/na-natural-areas/natural-areas-middle-region/middle-region/couchville-cedar-glade.html
Go see it. Take your children so you can learn together. This contributes towards solving two problems, immediate - nature deficit disorder, and longer term - ecosystems and environment destruction/ global warming.
3
“How is it possible that the most intellectual creature to ever walk the planet Earth is destroying its only home?” — Jane Goodall
11
And in 100 years, there'll still be plenty of them. They'll be growing in Ohio then, but they'll still be called the "Tennessee coneflower".
2
I love every article Margaret Renkl writes.
While I always learn something whenever she writes about Southern political and religious landscapes, I relish her articles about Nature, albeit plants, trees, shrubs, birds, bees, flowers, and everything in between the most.
It's her Monday morning articles that helps set a consistent tone of calm, peace, and tranquility for me.
But I also think I need stronger glasses because for most of the article, I thought she was referencing cornflowers instead of coneflowers. What a difference that makes!
Thank you Ms. Renkl for another article that is as beautiful as the pictured coneflowers!
9
Beautifully written, as always. Thank you for this!
2
It seems to me that the only reason the Tennessee coneflower abides is that no one has yet figured how to urbanize its natural habitat. Given enough time I suspect some one will...
3
@HapinOregon
Hi! So, Nashville and surrounding cities are growing at a very rapid pace, and most of the cedar glade habitat found within the Central Basin has already been lost to urbanization. I’m going to assume that you mean that the only reason the Tennessee purple coneflower is only found in these few locations is because no one has figured out how to cultivate it for the home garden? Well, that’s not the case. There are two nurseries that I know of that are growing this special species for the commercial trade: GroWild, Inc. of Fairview, TN and Overhill Gardens of Vonore, TN.
While traveling around my home city, I can see remnants of cedar glades scattered about between heavy developments and disturbed overgrowth. The rocky, thin soil with karst limestone exposed to the elements is a dead give-away of an old cedar glade. This habitat is globally rare, and is becoming even more rare everyday in Middle Tennessee. However, there is a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about the importance of conserving this type of grassland along with the other type of Southern grasslands: Southeastern Grasslands Initiative.
3
@Rebecca
Many thanks for your reply.
I was quite serious when I wrote the area hasn't been developed because of what I assume the inherent difficulty might be...
Is there any attempt for private non-profits to buy up various cedar grade glen habitats and remove them from the danger of development.
To borrow from Mark Twain, It's time to buy and protect cedar glade habitats. They aren't being made anymore.
Good story. Er, the words "bog," "glade," "moor," (U.K., mostly) and "vale" are not just children's words and they are not archaic. They are alive and breathing with creative speakers and writers.
3
Thank you for instilling hope. Part of the year I live in Utah; sharing the 7000ft elevation Colorado Plateau with coyotes, cottontails, jackrabbits, badgers, elk, deer, cougar, bobcat, varieties of birds, gecko, skinks, snakes, pinyon-juniper, cacti, rabbitbrush, sagebrush, wildflowers, and the list goes on.
Until we reverse unchecked population growth (currently 8X the carrying capacity of the planet), the assault on natural areas will continue, and we will lose everything......
7
@LaPine
You're not wrong, except that population growth looks like it's checking itself. Globally, total fertility rate has declined from about 5 adult children per woman in the late 1960s to about 2.5 today - not far above replacement level (ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth-past-future). Education of girls and women is thought to have a role. After some demographic bulging this century, total population is expected top out at around 11 billion early in the next century. That's a large number of people, to be sure, but its growth apparently isn't open-ended.
1
I remember seeing photographs of this plant in the new Nashville airport terminal in approx 1987. I did a little research and found plants available for sale. I planted them in northern Michigan, where they thrived.
Thank you for another good read from Nashville.
3
What a wonderful article. I live in one of the aforementioned counties and have coneflowers growing in my back yard. I was unaware of their significance, and mine are currently endangered by aggressive weeds! I'm headed out there to clean this afternoon.
6
@cannoneer2
Thank you! Aggressive introduced species, i.e. "weeds", are a significant threat to remnant populations of many native species in their dwindling habitats. If you have the motivation and wherewithal, careful weed control on your own property is one of the most meliorative things you can do.
1
I wish there had been more in this article about what caused this coneflower species to become rare. I am a casual but organic, mostly-native-plant gardener on a 1/4 lot in the middle of Dallas. I've had purple coneflowers for 30 years, hundreds, all from a couple of gallon pots bought from a local nursery. They are extremely tolerant and resilient plants, not to mention that they hybridize quickly and amazingly, and will sprout from random seeds in any crack in rocks or gravel or black clay soil, sun or shade. I literally have a couple of hundred outside right now that I haven't bothered to dig up and give away this year, in addition to the dozens of blooms around the yard. I really have to wonder what could endanger them?
1
@Texas Clare I have it on reputable authority that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
@Texas Clare
I know what you’re saying, but a complicated question has complicated answers. Mostly, fire suppression, a lack of natural disturbance by bison, and urbanization are to blame.
Cedar glades will become a forest if given the chance, and wildfires and bison would keep the woody growth at bay. Nashville was founded in 1779 and became a city in 1806, so centuries of altering the natural landscape has done its damage. Also, the plant was not formerly described until 1898, so most locals didn’t even know of its existence as a separate species from other Echinacea.
Further, unlike most other species of Echinacea, the Tennessee purple coneflower prefers thin limestone soil, which is not found everywhere, even within the Central Basin, so it does not thrive in typical garden conditions. It is certainly a very tough wildflower, though! It survives extreme temperatures of 120+ degrees Fahrenheit, drought, relentless sun, winter freezes, and seasonal flooding.
Check out Southeastern Grasslands Initiative for more information! 😊
2
@Rebecca
I agree Rebecca. In addition to your valid points, Echinacea tennessensis will cross pollinate with the Echinacea purpurea at the drop of a hat thus tainting the seed from both species. This is a threat to the colonies in the wild. If a bee visits the very common purple coneflower that is not planted in most homeowner gardens, then flies over to visit a TN coneflower - that seed is not tainted and will be a hybrid. And anyone who has planted this very adaptable coneflower in their yard and anyone with in a bees flight has purple coneflower? Their seedlings are also hybrid and the true species is not carried on in the offspring.
We were fortunate to visit the glades on multiple occasions with Dr. Quarterman, we attended the 'delisting' event. Over the past 22 years we have worked closely with the state parks system as well as the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance continuing the preservation and protection of this species.
1
I love these articles but it's very hard to be optimistic. The nyts recently published an article saying millions of species are on the brink of extinction. Many are already gone forever. The reason is humans and human activity. We are causing, thru our spectacular growth in numbers and lifestyle the loss of habitate that other creatures need. Unless we reduce our numbers and our consumer lifestyle to something more sustainable, it is hard to believe, in spite of success like this one, that the over all trend won't be, more of humans and less of everything else.
10
We live on the Crown Jewel of our solar system and we treat it like our toilet. Most people living in cities have rarely seen the night sky or have a clue of the names of the constellations, planets, have every seen shooting stars or can identify the Milky Way. I didn't until we moved to a rural community where the night sky wasn't hidden by city lights. It was an epiphany in my personal life. So was living with native land, native wildflowers, evidence everywhere of ancient Indians like grinding holes and artifacts everywhere. I even learned how the earth becomes fertilized as the dried brush is pushed down the mountains and eventually fertilizes land.
Urban dwellers are clueless and with the tv blaring cradle to grave suggestions on how to live, how to raise children, conduct themselves, the pressures of needing to buy and stay current is incredibly destructive in the U.S. and other countries focused on shiny bobbles. No wonder land fills keep growing, people ignorant about nature, focused only on human based conduct and not giving a rip about anything but themselves in a prescription for failure of the human species.
9
Margaret Renkl is as much philosopher as naturalist, as much social worker as writer, as much poet as essayist.
To be grateful, as I am, does not mean that we eschew hope nor that we settle for despair. Count me as very grateful.
7
I purchased a Tennessee coneflower from a local nursery about 5 years ago. Its my favorite plant in my garden. Probably because I have not seen another anywhere. Last year it looked like it wasn't coming back. I was disappointed but, being so far from Tennessee, it made sense. By mid-June a new one sprang up on the edge of my sidewalk. I was thrilled. Doubly thrilled when the original came back a little bit later. This year a third (also right in the crack between my garden and sidewalk). I didn't even know they grew in limestone which I am sure is not in my garden. Clearly it is a resilient and tenacious flower.
3
@Suzanne. Well, your cement sidewalk is a pretty close relative of limestone, but I think the article implied not so much that the plant needed that soil as other plants don’t do well there.
2
A wonderful, heart-warming article...of hope.
I missed reading Ms. Gay's article, but have now caught up. I must deeply disagree with her views. Clearly, our current governments (national and local) seem to offer little "hope". But I suggest that without it, nothing is possible. It defines what is possible.
Like love - a "useless" emotion to some but as necessary as air in my life experiences - hope is only a starting point. It has nothing to do with "the hands of others" or "no control" or "abdicating responsibility". It exists in animals - my dog waiting for her next walk. My simple advice: imagine your life without it.
3
Beautiful photos! I am not a scientist, but I have a vague idea from various sources that preserving as much of the plant and animal species as possible is good for the planet's long term health, which is good for human long term health.
We all hear people complain about the eradication or extinction of some unknown bug,bird, rodent or fish due to human behavior.
Too few of us really understand why it matters.
5
As much as nature is being pressured into extinction by humans, I have a suspicion that nature will get the last laugh.
Plants and less complex animals are far more resilient than we humans. At the rate we’re going, humans are headed for extinction far sooner than any of us wants to think about. Take just the negative factors we already know about… climate change, famine, mass migration, pandemic, weapons of mass destruction… it’s pretty obvious we’re playing with fire, in terms of human existence.
The only real question is whether we’ll wipe out 100% of humans on our planet or just most of us. If, for example, 5% of hearty, resilient humans are left to forage around for survival, maybe humans can make a comeback. But it’ll be slow going. I suspect Mother Nature will have a glorious comeback, while we’re still trying to figure out how to use our old iPhones to make fire.
6
Focusing on endangered species is a losing approach to environmental preservation. Very few people really care about Tennessee cornflowers (or piping plovers, or northern spotted owls, etc.). We have used these species as tools to bring lawsuits to otherwise preserve larger environmental causes.
If we continue down this legalistic path, without focusing on the real issues of open space, clean air, clean water, and clean earth, we risk losing the bigger argument. Environmental laws will be repealed, regulations will be rolled back, and so on. This lack of focus and political will is what is happening in the abortion debate.
In a similar vein, the focus on climate change (which again is a distant issue for most people, along with some legitimate questions about the science) as opposed to basic environmental preservation to maintain quality of life, is having the same kind of negative impact on the larger environmental movement.
2
@RS. Correct. I’m sure any environmentalist with a brain feels awkward and a little guilty for using some bird, flower, or reptile as a legal tool. My neighbors and I used a salamander to shut down a planned development! This course is taken because it is the only current tool we have, and yes, it makes the results go down badly with even the thinking public, let alone those with a vested interest. Making climate change into a political, partisan issue is the worst example of a perversion of science that has negated any action relative to a globally catastrophic future. Once we go down this path, negation of science across the board is inevitable.
It’s as if the United States, especially, has taken a very wrong turn, for very wrong reasons, and has to recover, if we can, only by the type of re-education we so much abhor. Lots to fix at the polls and beyond.
3
The Tennessee coneflower was not extinct. It seems people just didn't look very hard for it. I have had personal experience with several endangered or "extinct" species. They are easy to get listed and very difficult to de-list. Once listed, a lot of money and time are spent looking for them. And usually, as with the coneflower, it is learned that they are thriving in many places other than what were believed to be their last remaining refuges.
It got so silly in California that an Extinct Species Protection Act was proposed. It seems that there were no protections provided for a species declared extinct. And rediscovering "extinct" species was so common that it was deemed important to protect them when they were rediscovered.
In the meantime listed species are often used a legal weapons by NIMBYs opposing one thing or another.
Life almost always finds a way.
4
I'm a conservationist. I have worked a lifetime to protect the environment. I have failed. The earth is now so radically altered, its flora and fauna so horrifically bulldozed, sprayed, modified, killed off, that even depression is without its solace.
I try, in the face of massive extinctions, coral reef bleaching, orca whales dying for lack of salmon to eat, polar bears starving because their ice sheet homes have melted, Utah coyotes shot as bounties just for being coyotes, Trump approving, in the middle of sage grouse habitat, more fracking on BLM lands in the West because we need the oil--I try to find specks of hope, a Tennessee coneflower, a Lazarus Flower. It is hard if not impossible
to do.
I think of poet Seamus Heaney's lines:
"History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.”
123
@Dave Thomas. Would conservationists ever think that conservation was a bad thing? Did any of the people you’ve met over the years shock you with this idea? Some of us think that preservation of nature is clearly, overwhelmingly, important. The entire rest of humanity would rather not, especially if it impinges on food or income. That reduces the creed of conservation to a backwater, an aberration, wishful thinking. So ‘tree-huggers’ are kooks, opponents of strip mining are deluded, laws to limit fishing are wrong, and so forth. Mr. Thomas: this is who we are, and it’s nothing I’d want to conserve. The contest between conservation and human population growth is already decided.
10
@Dave Thomas You didn't fail. There are so many people now, one person's effort does not affect a large area.
7
@Marat1784 - Agreed. Many peeps, including the pseudo-"enviros", cry crocodile tears over the mindless damage we're doing. However few, if any, care enough to actually lighten their environmental footprint, to change their egocentric habits, in order to reduce their overconsumption and/or overpopulation.
8
Ecosystem restoration is the gardening of the future. Much more interesting, much more satisfying, and much more valuable.
72
@Pete, Well said.
The corollary is that gardens will be the ecosystems of the future. Gardens are great, but nobody should pretend that they are anything more than tiny scraps of natural ecosystems.
4
@Pete
... and much more maligned if we don't vote. Please get out the vote.
2
Wonderfully written. A couple of years ago, I made up my mind to learn about wildflowers. I am stunned both by how many different species there are in a nearby park and by how many of them are invasive.
On a larger scale, many who paddle the Boundary Waters think they are in virgin forest. It is not. A century ago, it was heavily logged. Left alone, it has come back.
We can fix things that we messed up. Tennessee is a stone cold example. Thank you, Ms Renkl.
77
Exploring the Alpine Tundra of the White Mountains of California above the tree line. It is an alien landscape as well. At 12,500 to 14,200 the flowering plants are down low to the ground or nestled amongst or against the geological landscape. Event there, the pollinators are doing there thing.
Now I have "Ode to Joy" bouncing around inside my cranium.
8
Fewer humans is the solution to most problems.
13
@Maggie The most humane way to accomplish that is family planning and allowing women choices about their reproductive lives. Plenty of women don't want 7 kids, they want 2. Lifting the global gag rule would be a good start.
5
@Letitia Jeavons
Women should of course be allowed to choose the size of their families. The other requirement is that girls and young women be educated, so they can envision, and achieve, other roles for themselves besides motherhood.
6
I live in Michigan. Just as I realize t hat controlling auto emissions cannot be left to Michiganians, Tennessee conservation (like voting rights) cannot be left to Tennesseans.
3
Ms. Renki, your quotation from Roxane Gay made me think of one from Greta Thunberg about climate change: "I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house was on fire – because it is"
I'm grateful for all three of you. And for Dr. Quarterman.
16
So, Lazarus is back. If we humans could interact better with Nature, our understanding of blending together may come to fruition... and become grateful about the variety on offer by mother Earth. We depend on her for our survival, let alone the enjoyment of being alive...without screwing things up. Who would have thought, such a small wonder, even an accident of nature, could influence all around us...and hopefully within us as well. Becoming one with nature, before our final repose, may be a miracle waiting to happen...if only we would let it happen.
3
Just like the story of a bird that apparently went extinct on a specific island and then apparently re-evolved to once again populate that island, we should wonder,
how likely is it, once we have eliminated the weather and physical environment, that any plant will once again, grow?
1
@M
You should be skeptical of that story. A different bird may have evolved to superficially resemble an extinct one, but it could never be exactly the same. Every species is represented by a unique genome, the contingent result of a particular history of evolutionary forces and events. It can *not* evolve twice. Extinction is forever!
1
@M - technically a different species of rail evolved and also lost the ability to fly after it populated an island that had earlier had a different flightless rail. Convergent evolution but separated by a very long time between the two species. This paper's paywalled, but the abstract gets the point across.
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz018/5487031?redirectedFrom=fulltext
1
In his poem “Witness” WS Merwin writes:
I want to tell what the forests
were like
I will have to speak
in a forgotten language
So too it is for “Moor. Vale. Bog. Glade”- and coneflower - the vocabulary of a forgotten language. I appreciate Renkl’s Monday morning optimism, but reality has a way of withering the flowers of hope.
That a flower has managed to survive on a rocky barren of no commercial value is a slight frame on which to hang hope for the future the species that is really at stake here – humans.
At the risk of spoiling the momentary feel-good energy of the coneflower, the wider optics are sobering. The Couchville Cedar Glade sits in the middle of a state that has 70 Civil War memorials keeping alive the “Lost Cause” ethos and sowing social division. And there has to be some irony in a state that protects a rare flower, but which overwhelmingly supports a racist president who denies climate change and is on a mission to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency.
Good for the coneflower; may it bloom forever. But in spite of granting the flower a temporary respite, red states like Tennessee, are not speaking the coneflower’s language. The coneflower’s interest is everyone’s interest - but unfortunately, red states will vote against their own self-interest, and ultimately the coneflower’s.
61
@Michael I agree it is ironic, but it also is a reminder of the actual diversity of interests and values even in a red state such as this and that you can't paint an entire state with a single brush.
7
@Michael Good point about the land being useful for any other activity. You mention civil war sites, which actually would make excellent sites for ecological preservation/restoration. I've tried to get one Civil War site in Durham, NC to value and care for the wonderful and unique plant life found on its 40 acres, as yet to no avail.
3
@Michael
LOL, conefowers are Democrats
The next time your city or town has a meeting about a small patch of land, attend the meeting and suggest planting only native species. So few people participate in these meetings, simply bringing yourself, some friends and a list of native plants could start a trend in your neck of the (noninvasive) woods.
19
It's nice to read about a success. Most people sadly do not live near areas where native plants thrive. Human activity and invasive species have taken a large toll on these plant communities. Without them pollinators will not thrive (industrial mono-culture ag is not your friend), and without pollinators we cannot grow food. And by the any one can help. I live on a small farm and have a small native plan area. It's alive with bees, flies, butterflies and birds. I leave the dried up plants over winter, and the seeds and brush provides shelter and food for birds. Devote just one flower bed or portion of community garden to native plants and you will be amazed.
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Very interesting article.
I take issue with the commonly used statistic/prediction that the world will lose 50% of its species. I don't know the science, but what one imagines is that all sorts of common animals will disappear. When you consider that some reports indicate that 80% of all species are insects, and others that say 2/3 of all species are microbes, the vast majority of species to be lost will hit those two categories.
I am not disputing the cataclysm facing the next generation due to climate change. I'm suggesting that the half of all species disappearing trope is not useful to the discussion. More specificity would be helpful.
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@rlschles Insects and microbes are vital to all other species. Consider, for example, pollination, decomposition, and food for species higher in the food web. I'd say that's not only useful but essential to the discussion.
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@rlschles
If you're saying insects and microbes don't hold public attention, you're probably right. Yet the distinction between charismatic species like this showy wildflower and "bugs and slugs" is pretty subjective, and an honest accounting of species would include microbes. It's impossible to say whether any one species is essential to human welfare. But if any are, wouldn't we hate to miss them too late?
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@rlschles - 50% of all extant species is a pretty specific number. More detail? Mammals and amphibians are most at risk as far as fraction of all species within each.
National Academy of Science paper on the risk to vertebrates here - figure 4 is depressing, the rest of the paper no less so.
https://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/E6089
It's sobering to realize the scale of our takeover of the planet. By weight, much more than half of all bird or mammal mass in the world is made up of humans, our cattle and our poultry. Our fertilizer production has nearly doubled the amount of fixed nitrogen in the biosphere, which sounds nice until you see the dead zones in the ocean everywhere rivers flow with runoff from our fields. Ocean species suffer from warming, pollution runoff, acidification and over-harvesting. When new fish started hitting stores and restaurants, its because the ones they replaced are overfished. I basically don't eat seafood anymore.
We have to grow up fast as a species - like it or not we're controlling the course of the planet, and unfortunately, we've only got the skills of the rankest amateur at this.
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Thank you for describing the beauty of an American native prairie. There is a great tendency to think of the native prairies as "just weeds," not the beautiful, natural flower gardens, often alive with butterflies, that they really are.
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How inspiring to read this article of such charm and importance. On a daily basis I am grateful for the gift my parents gave by allowing and nurturing my awareness of the world around in every form. The kaleidoscope of nature is, as ancient Chinese philosophy informs us, a constant source of renewal if we respect and care for it, as it cares for us.
Thank you Margaret Renkl for this small gift today.
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Ahem, the Taheke?
I think the writer means the New Zealand Takehe.
The former never existed, the latter exists. It was once thought extinct but then it was rediscovered. Turns out that it does surprisingly well in your average sheep paddock.
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A few years ago, a climatologist announced that one effect of climate change was that evolution would come to a halt.
I haven't recovered my ability to assume that anything a climatologist says must be given a presumption of scientific legitimacy. Or that the the loss of any species is a priori a fact or a disaster.
But the coneflower is magnificent, and I'm happy about its success.
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@Sequel
Uh. You're holding one alleged "climatologist" against the thousands of trained, disciplined climate scientists who publish their work in peer-reviewed venues? If one is scientifically meta-literate (blog.chron.com/climateabyss/2013/02/scientific-meta-literacy), one presumes their lopsided consensus for anthropogenic global warming, redundantly documented at >90%, is legitimate. IOW, new challenges to the current consensus are extraordinary claims, requiring extraordinary evidence. Science is fundamentally a collective enterprise, in which progress occurs by consensus. I, for one, am as sure as I need to be that the globe is warming, that humans are the cause, and that the costs in money and tragedy will mount until the global economy decarbonizes.
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In Michigan deer will pull these out by the roots in winter, have had no luck.
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@northlander The deer no longer have predators to keep their population in check, and they are overrunning many suburban areas.
Re-introduce predators and watch the deer population decline to a number that is supported by the ecosystem.
Don't do so, and watch your yard get eaten up!
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@northlander
When everything else is gone there will be deer, immensely destructive to almost every plant.
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@northlander
How about an 8-ft high deer fence? That works for blacktails on the west coast, at least. Mine is plastic net hanging on steel T-posts.
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Your nature writing is a gift. Keep it up, and forget politics.
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@Jonathan Katz
But loving nature, and preserving it, is political. Politics has become a dirty word, but at its root (forgive botanical pun) it is about how we live out our values. To care for a piece of the earth is a great way to practice an honorable politics.
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@M. Tidwell - Political, yes, however also personal. We, individually, are the Fossil Fuel addicts who thoughtlessly burn ever-increasing amounts of Fossil Fuels and produce ever-increasing amounts of GHGs. We, in the US, waste more than half of the energy we produce.
We cannot to wait for political focus, unlikely as that is, to guide us in reducing our overconsumption. If we care enough, we can begin Now to change our wasteful habits.
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What a remarkable storyteller you are!
It reminded me that of the tens of millions who live in cities without a direct connection or access to wilderness areas, they will likely have accessible state and national parks. Parks have volunteer opportunities for people of all ages, and without regard to citizenship/residency status, to remove invasive species nurture natives, and restore habitats. Park rangers share their breadth and depth of knowledge about what lives on the lands, and what the habitat requires for sustainability.
Anyone can start by visiting the National Park Service website, finding their park, and checking the get involved/habitat or citizen science opportunities.
State parks are likely found on the state.gov websites.
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Even if we were go extinct, completely gone from the face of the planet, a million years from now, life will evolve and adapt to the changed Earth we create. It will do so until this planet is completely obliterated by some catastrophe, reduced to nothing but space dust. The only constant in the universe is change, which is especially true in nature. Life, in all of its glorious but so beautiful forms, continues because it changes. As a young man, I continue to ponder what God is to me. I am, however, most certain beyond all doubt, that if there is a God, that divine creature exists in Nature. Nothing else could explain the simplistic but yet complex systems and structures that govern the wild realm. The greatest of these systems is change. Change that a dear salmon will feed a forest, change that a newborn bison will natural graze the grasslands, change that a once dead flower will walk out of that ecological tomb man put it in. If you wish to believe in anything, believe in change, Nature's, and God's, greatest lesson.
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This one simple flower is a powerful emblem of what can be done if we care enough. It’s bloom holds hope for a coexistence that is central to our survival.
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This is an excellent article. The same thing has occurred in the animal kingdowm as well: the American buffalo. Again; thank you for writing a great story.
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Margaret Renkl writes the way I'd like to write. And talk. And her lovely piece today left me thinking about hope vs despair. Hope is a tattered flag I still cling to, but despair constantly nips at my heels. If we don't elect a responsible adult -- in fact a whole slew of them -- in 2020, I don't see how we can recover. Changing our personal habits is a nice gesture, but it will take a massive policy shift at the top before we can recover and join the so-called Lazarus species.
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The only thing I would add to Renkl’s beautiful and crucially important essay is that the Tennessee coneflower itself deserves credit for its endurance. Oh yes, we humans need all the resources we can muster. At the same time, we need to remember that flowers and the plethora of botanical life have been around much, much longer than our species—and can teach us everything about adaptation, transformation, and survival amid the extraordinary damage that our species has caused.
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Species extinction will continue as long as the human population continues to grow.
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@skeptonomist .... and long afterward. Of all Earth's species that have ever existed, more than 99.9% are now extinct. Every extinction, and especially every mass extinction event, created new opportunities for new species. I wouldn't bet a plug nickel on the long-term survival of humans (do the math ... >99.9%?), but I'd wager everything on the persistence of life on Earth.
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Margaret, yet again your words give hope to this native middle Tennessean still residing in our increasingly red and Trumpian-crazed state.
I'll be on the lookout for this Lazarus flower.
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In places, persons stand in line. In others, persons stand on line. All think one of those choices is wrong. Tennessee coneflower colonies spread out across six different populations in Middle Tennessee. Others think colonies of the plant spread across six different populations in Middle Tennessee, a matter of taste. Perhaps spread out means more than spread. The hopeful appreciate the importance of the recovery of the Tennessee coneflower and pray for more recoveries. One who lived in Tennessee is gratified when good happens in Tennessee. News of the Tennessee coneflower is splendid. Money, government, the market, advocacy, personal responsibility, the more resources the better.
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Oh I love this! Conservation has always been close to my heart, but I think what I like most about this article is the discussion on hope and despair. It's so easy to get paralyzed by that despair and not do anything and to simply allow the worst to come; with a little bit of hope we find a reason to act, and these problems are far too big to solve without a lot of people contributing.
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@Amelia
I agree with you Amelia, but it happens too that from despair, when we feel the hard bottom, then we move on, and find more than hope : energy for the love of nature who nurtures us all freely.
Are we, human beings deep enough in despair ?... to feel the momentum and start finally acting
Good people can remove mountains.
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@Amelia
The best thing we could all do is to turn out lawns into food gardens or let them go to seed. Wild flowers will soon appear. Sowing pollinator seeds would be a gift to the dwindling insect world. The folly of the green lawn which has to be artificially fertilized, and mowed again and again and again causing aggravating noise is contributing to the planet's demise. The gasser mowers pollute, the run-off water from the high-phosphorus fertilizer gets into ponds, lakes and shorelines causing harmful algal blooms. Down with the lawns! Up with the Tennessee cone-flower!
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"Certain old-fashioned words from fairy tales and storybooks still cling to me from childhood. Moor. Vale. Bog. Glade. "
I just love this opening sentence. Not sure why, but it really pulls at my heartstrings. I'm going to write it down and save it. Thanks!
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@Holly
You should look up the English nature writer’s book called “Lost Words” which delves into the disappearance of once common nature words from younger readers books. Here is a clip from the Amazon review:” ...Robert Macfarlane and acclaimed artist & author Jackie Morris All over the country, there are words disappearing from children's lives. These are the words of the natural world - Dandelion, Otter, Bramble and Acorn, all gone. The rich landscape of wild imagination and wild play is rapidly fading from our children's minds. 'Gorgeous' Observer The Lost Words stands against the disappearance of wild childhood. It is a joyful celebration of nature words and the natural world they invoke...”
It is beautifully illustrated and not just for children.
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Reads nicely, but human intervention is a mix of good intentions, destruction and blind error. In the plant world, we have invasives, food crop monoculture, and, dare we say, climate change. Preserving this plant, or the passenger pigeon, or the ocean versus accidental or intentional mass extinctions related to supporting eight billion people; all are simply events.
The problem is that we have arrived at that stage where extreme acceleration of processes is possible. Asteroid strikes, glaciations, nuclear wars, atmospheric alterations, all operate on different timescales. But for the first time in human evolution, the view ahead shows a very close horizon for continuity of anything like current conditions.
And don’t forget, all our pretty flowers are intended for the attentions of insects; not us.
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@Marat1784 I agree with most of this, but flowers are not for insects alone. Coneflower has well-documented health benefits. Where poison ivy grows, you often find jewelweed, a salve. Aspirin comes from pine bark. We evolved alongside our flora, and thru trial (and error!), we have learned our medicinal lore.
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@michaelannb
Well said. But I believe aspirin was derived from salicin present in the bark of willows and poplars.
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@Bill You are correct.
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The key is if the GOP can see the money in helping the planet. If there is no profit in it, then most politicians simply don't care. How do we get people to care beyond their own self-interest?
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@Anthony
One look at the number of comments to this wonderful piece by Margaret Renkl makes my heart sink. Even the largely enlightened readership of the times doesn’t seem too interested in matters of ecology or at least they don’t often voice it. Here we have a hopeful piece. Thanks Margaret.
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@Cathy Yes, people rarely look beyond themselves. What they don't realize is that the earth will survive but humans may not if we can't get better solutions.
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@Anthony: An important, appreciable question, sir. I was going to suggest reading the NYT, but how many read it? The wise next to last paragraph contains a comprehensive answer.
1
Margaret, you complete me. I have a three Acre yard. I’m a part time Farmer, I grow Grass and Weeds. But, it’s my major form of exercise and contemplation. Plus, the Husband has literally never even sat on the John Deere tractor, let alone used it.
I provide plenty of shelter for birds and other creatures.
I’m doing my part, and proud of it. Cheers.
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I have one blooming in the native plant area in my yard. It's not native to where I live, so maybe it doesn't belong there, but I made an exception for it. I got it at a plant sale a year ago from a vendor of native plants, and he mentioned its rare status. I'm glad to see its recovery. Mine is surrounded by a wire cage to protect it from my dogs, at least until I see if it naturalizes.
19
Thoughtful piece for a Monday morning.
The video attached about Dr. Quarterman's work and contribution to our natural world is inspiring. I am always moved by people who go about their work quietly, with intention and create change or right wrongs, not for their own benefit, but because they see how that change can have a ripple effect of positivity for the well-being of many.
Thank you, Margaret, for introducing us to this 'hopeful' story and to Dr. Quarterman for showing us that action does not have to be righteous - it can be quiet and focused and balanced - and possibly enormously profound.
26
Coincidentally I just saw the Tennessee coneflower a few days ago at the Knioxville Botanical Garden.
9
As always, the inimitable Margaret Renkl puts the ineffable and the deeply beautiful world around us into words that stay with us. Without haranguing and without badgering she makes her point about our relationship to a world in increasing distress in poetic phrases of quiet simplicity and scientific accuracy. She gives us hope and she gives us direction and her words are a meditation on what has been done, and what can still be done, if only we care enough. I thank her.
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@Susan Rothschild: It has been asked, what is to be done? There are lots in these pages, including another Pulitzer-worthy Times writer, Dave Taft. No one interested in the integrity of our only earth should ever skip Mr. Taft's or Ms. Renkl's articles.
4
@FCS Hear, hear! Ms. Renkl's column today gently reminds us of the many, many folks out there who are working quietly, in and out of government, to protect and nurture our environment and its natural wonders, even--and perhaps especially--in those states where the political climate would not seem to support their work. Hopefully they will inspire more and more of us to echo their commitment. Who knows, doing so may even enable us to reach the venerable age of 101!
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For most ordinary folks, there are plenty of wildflowers in the wild, adding or losing a couple, here and there - no biggie.
1
@heyomania
Until we discover it had a medical benefit or a gene that aided other critical plants.
Sadly some cannot be brought back. One in north Africa was an effective prevention of pregnancy in the Roman era. So valued that it was sold down to the last plant.
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@heyomania
You are describing "plant blindness" (bbc.com/future/story/20190425-plant-blindness-what-we-lose-with-nature-deficit-disorder). It's helping to drive the ongoing sixth great extinction in the history of life on Earth, a biggie indeed for some of us. One almost envies your ordinary folks. Aldo Leopold said "One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise."
-A. Leopold
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@heyomania
For most ordinary folks there may well be plenty of wildflowers, but think about the other species with which we share the wild. Monarch butterflies require nectar producing plants, and lay their eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. Many finches prefer sunflowers, thistles and asters. Cardinals, titmice and bluebirds all eat the fruit of dogwood trees. Would losing the monarch and the cardinal be “no biggie”. The richness and variety of our world, not to mention our food supply, depends on our responsible stewardship of all species.
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