The Joyful Botanist: Native Plants and Native People
This is Cherokee Land.
Adam Bigelow photo
I think a lot about native plants. In fact, it is the subject of most everything I do, from the weekly wildflower walks I lead during the growing season, to the many classes, workshops and presentations I offer throughout the year. And I write about native plants in these columns that I produce twice a month. My focus is on plants that are native to the southern Appalachian Mountains and Western North Carolina.
When I’m writing or talking about native plants, I’m always careful to say the full phrase “native plants” and not just shorten it to “natives” out of respect for the native people who have lived here continuously for tens of thousands of years and are still here.
I live in the WNC mountains on land that was taken from the Aniyunwiya, Tsalagi or Anikituah people, who are known collectively in modern terms as Cherokee. This is Cherokee land. They are the original inhabitants and tenders of the forests, meadows, mountains and rivers of this beautiful land.
Many mountain folk, the term I use for the settlers of Appalachia who are descendants of people from Scotland and Ireland, are proud of their family history going back hundreds of years to the 18th Century. That familial continuity is something to celebrate. When compared to upward of 25,000 years of continuous living and cultivation of land, however, it pales in comparison. That is how long people have been living here. If you ask the native Cherokee people, they have always been here.
But if we’re going to brag on how long a family has lived here, then the native plants of Cherokee land have the bragging rights going back millions upon millions of years, long before people arrived on the land. Native plants like tulip-poplar (liriodendron tulipifera) and mountain magnolia (magnolia fraseri) are from the magnolia family (magnoliaceae), which is among the oldest flowering plant families in the world. Magnolias have been on the land for hundreds of millions of years. They have been around so long that their flowers evolved before bees and flying insects and are still pollinated by crawling beetles. Magnolias are older than wings.
When people have been living on and with the land for such a long time as the native people have here, relationships with the land and especially with plants develop strong, interconnected ties. This is true of indigenous people of North America, whose close attention and careful work led to the creation and care of many foods that we take for granted on our plates, especially in our holiday feasts and traditions.
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A native plant is defined (in one of many different definitions) as one that existed on the land prior to European contact. In general, and even as modern historical discoveries have shown otherwise, I tend to use the classic 1492 date as the demarcation line for defining when a plant moved and introduced by people is either native or exotic. If it was brought here in 1491 or before, then it is considered by many as a native plant.
By this definition, corn (Zea mays) can be considered native to Appalachia. Corn, as we know it today, was created through traditional breeding methods over thousands of years by the Mexica people, whom we know as Aztec. They took a weedy grass species called teosinte (zea sp.) and through intention, care and observation bred a food that dominates our plates to this day.
Many of the foods that we eat at traditional feasts in the United States come from North, Central and South America. Many people don’t know this due to how these plant species have been changed and spread around the world over time. If you associate potatoes (solanum tuberosa) with Ireland and tomatoes (solanum lycopersicum) with Italy and not from Peru, where they both were developed, then you too have been fooled by the Columbian Exchange. This is the collective term for the spread of plants and animals for production by colonizing and conquering European nations.
Squashes like the pumpkin (cucurbita pepo) and candy roaster (cucurbita maxima) used for pie or porch decorations are so native to this land that they continue to have co-evolved bee associates that are involved in its pollination. These are the squash bees (Peponapis spp. and xenoglossa spp.) who make their homes in the bare soil just under the squash’s stem.
Cranberries (vaccinium macrocarpon), blueberries (vaccinium spp.) and strawberries (fragaria virginica) all can be found growing in the wild of WNC, as well as on our grateful tables and in our full bellies after feasts. And they are all native plants. Maybe you even sweetened those fruit pies or sauces from the sugar maple tree (acer saccharum), which is also native here.
I don’t celebrate the traditional, apocryphal story of Thanksgiving, as it is tied to the genocide of native people. I prefer to honor the many native tribes and peoples whose land was stolen in the creation of this country. I do celebrate their traditional foods, and the ingenuity and intelligence used in their care and breeding. And I celebrate native plants. Here’s to the natives of this land. May they continue.
(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..)
