The Joyful Botanist: On the mend
Monarch butterfly and asters on the Blue Ridge Parkway during fall migration.
Adam Bigelow photo
I have been thinking a lot about healing lately. How it happens, how long it can take and the differences between healing emotional wounds and physical wounds, not to mention psychic and spiritual wounds. And to no one’s surprise, I’ve been thinking about plants: how they heal themselves, how they help heal the land, and how they help us in our own healing of body and spirit.
In Western North Carolina and east Tennessee, the impacts and memories of Hurricane Helene’s devastation are still fresh and present as we approach the one-year anniversary of the storm. We are still healing from a major wound that for many in the region encompasses all forms of injury, physical and emotional, psychic and spiritual.
The land is still healing, and its scars and recovery efforts will be seen for generations to come. From the flooded creeks and rivers, to the landslides and washouts, to the many upon many trees that came down in the winds and rain, healing has already begun.
Plants heal in many ways. They heal their own injuries through a process that is very different from how animals, like humans, heal. Trees use a process called compartmentalization that allows them to seal off a wound or infection and grow around the damage to keep it from spreading. You’ve seen this in the burls that form on trees that are highly valued to wood turners and furniture makers. Maybe our own scars have value unseen?
Herbaceous plants like wildflowers also utilize compartmentalization when recovering from injury. If they can successfully seal off the wound, plants can reroute the pathways (xylem and phloem) used for transportation of water, nutrients, sugars and carbohydrates. If the damage to a stem or branch is too great, the plant can seal off and often self-prune the damaged parts.
They then regrow and continue their mission of growth and reproduction. You can see this in simple gardening acts like deadheading, where spent flowers are removed before they go to seed. This sends a signal to the plant that their reproductive efforts have been halted. In response, they will grow new flowers that we can enjoy all summer long.
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Plants also offer themselves to aid in our own healing. There is healing that comes from eating healthy vegetables. Dried herbs taken as teas or made into medicine are incredibly helpful and effective in healing most garden-variety ailments and injuries. And time spent in nature, surrounded by plants, has direct benefits to our emotional and mental well-being. This is documented in many ways and expressed beautifully in the work of E.O. Wilson and his biophilia hypothesis, which states that humans have an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life.
Plants heal the land through many different and interrelated processes, especially after disturbances. Plants will quickly cover exposed ground, helping to retain soil and moisture, necessary for life and regrowth. Plants native to a bioregion also heal the land by being in relationship with all the other shared organisms in a space through coevolved relationships with everything from soil microorganisms to associated insects, and by helping to feed animals great and small.
No matter what it is you are healing from, or where you are on your own personal or collective healing journeys, plants are there for you. Tell your troubles to the trees and sing songs to the wildflowers. Sometimes they’re the only ones that seem to be listening. They will hear you, and if you pay close attention, you may also hear them speaking to you.
(The Joyful Botanist leads weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers consultations and private group tours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
