The Joyful Botanist: Soil Life
frequently enlist the assistance of microbial organisms to help their growth and life.
Adam Bigelow graphic
Winter has come to Southern Appalachia; the forests are mostly dormant, sleeping and saving energy for springtime and the return of growth and vitality. While it may appear that everything is slowed and in decline, just below the surface, life still flourishes. This quote from the mystic Iranian Sufi poet Rumi captures the flourish: “And don't think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It's quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.”
The first lesson I got in horticulture school long ago was that dirt is what’s under your fingernails, on your jeans, or behind your ears if you don’t wash well. Plants grow in soil, which is much more than a supportive matrix to hold them up. Soil is a living, breathing organism made up of many different components, including broken-down rocks, decomposed organic matter like rotting leaves or animal carcasses and many thousands of different species of microbial life like bacteria, fungi, nematodes and amoebas.
Through all of this grow, plant roots work with different soil components to benefit themselves, other plant roots and the very organisms that plants depend on for water, nutrients and their general well-being. Plants frequently enlist the assistance of microbial organisms to help their growth and life.
Most plants have a relationship with fungi in the soil that attach themselves around and into plant roots, effectively extending the roots and enhancing the plant’s ability to take up water and nutrients. Bacteria that live around the roots in an area collectively called the rhizosphere can extract minerals the plant needs from the soil and make them into a soluble form that they can take up. They do this at the request of the plants, who pass coded messages through the gift of excess sugar and carbohydrates that contain information about the required types of minerals, their combinations and amounts.
This is how the forest grows and thrives, even though nobody is fertilizing the forest. These inter-species communications were developed over the half-billion years that plants have been living on the land. They go way back, plants and soil life. For reference, humans have been on this planet for only about a half-million years at most.
In that time of human evolution, around 2.5 million years when including our Hominid ancestors, we have developed many co-evolved relationships with the soil and the life that teems within it. You know that good smell of soil, like finished compost or the forest just after a rainstorm? Some of that smell comes from microbial soil life in the form of a bacterium called Mycobacterium vaccae that gets volatilized and blown into the air when soil is disturbed. This species of bacteria goes into our noses when we smell soil, where it encounters receptors that match the shape of the microbe. This then starts a chain reaction within our bodies that increases levels of serotonin and domapone, the feel-good chemicals our brain produces to help us feel mentally well and happy.
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Soil makes me happy. Theres a lot to that. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy gardening and turning compost. And it is part of the reason I enjoy standing barefoot on sun-warmed soil. Did you know that the Latin word for the sun is sol? And here in the Southern United States, we pronounce the word soil like “soul” which is that undying spirit within all living things. Even the bottom of our feet is called the sole. When I am standing barefoot on the ground, my soles are touching the soil, warmed by the sol and all of that fills my soul up with love and joy.
There are many things I believe should remain in the soil, including include rocks, roots, gems, arrowheads, bones, roots, rare earth minerals and oil. Keep them in the ground, earthed if you will, as opposed to something being unearthed. There are also many lessons that we in our modern and increasingly disconnected world could learn from soil. Mostly it’s about community, connectivity and sharing the excess with those in need. Soil life keeps all life on earth flourishing. Even yours.
(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..)
