Five Thousand Year Old LIVING "Bonsai"

Bonsai literally translates as a "planting in a tray", but this isn't where bonsai really got it's start. Nature started the whole gig, and with imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, man decided to flatter mother nature and copy the idea.


The art of bonsai gardening started centuries ago in China, and was then adopted by many neighbouring communities, eventually spreading globally by this day and age. The word 'bonsai' is a Japanese pronunciation, taken from the Chinese word, penzai, but the art itself originated from the Chinese art of penjing. Bonsai has since become an umbrella term in the english language, that describes any miniature plant in a container.


Nature has formed some of the most unique and interesting bonsai though. Plants, being as resilient as they are, have found ways to live in some of the mort trying, and seemingly impossible places to grow.


Bonsai, quite literally, are plants that have a very confined root space in which to grow, usually with restricted water and nutrients. Because of the difficult environment, these plants grow very, very slowly, and stunted or dwarfed. In nature, they tend to take on a very gnarled and misshapen form, often sculpted by strong winds at high elevations and years of abuse. Man has adopted this 'windswept' form as one of the traditional styles for modern, potted bonsai. Cultivated bonsai are far more picturesque, most notably from careful cultivation. Modern bonsai relies less on stressing the plants into stunted forms, and more on controlling their growth by regular root and stem pruning. Wires are often used to shape the plants to the desired form. Nutrients and water are provided regularly, though not generously or maximally, but enough to encourage strong and healthy, albeit, slow and stunted growth.

In nature, these conditions exist primarily on rock faces, mountains, cliffs or in very harsh terrain or extreme climates. These plants somehow get a hold on life, wedged into cracks or crevasses in rocks where debris has collected over time to provide a substrate in which to grow. Most rocks are very non-porous, meaning that water runs right off of it, and water is available to these natural bonsai sparingly, and infrequently.

A tree in Methuselah Grove

The most common natural bonsai are conifers, such as junipers or pines. Sometimes, entire rock faces can be covered in these miniature trees, looking young and lush, but really, are decades or centuries old. The oldest tree in the world is known as 'Methuselah'. Methuselah has spent between 4800 and 5000 years living in the White Mountains of California. She has a rather large family of her own, an entire dwarfed Bristlecone Pine forest growing at this high elevation. This forest, called Methuselah Grove, is made up of trees well over four thousand years old, and somewhere amongst them, Methuselah hides. Her location remains a well-kept secret to protect her from vandalism, and photos of her are impossible to find to hide her identity. Methuselah and her ancient family have been around longer than all of man's recorded history, and lived longer than anything we've ever known.


The redwood forests, found in British Columbia down to California, have trees that regularly reach over three hundred feet tall. The largest redwood, and tallest tree in the world, measuring 379.1 feet tall! These trees often live for thousands of years, but none have lived as long as Methuselah. With that being said, you would expect Methuselah to be a giant among other giants, but she stands not much taller than you or I. She is a bonsai, crafted with mother nature's cruel treatment and the harsh hands of time.

Flowering Has Nothing To Do With Fertilizer

When I worked in garden centres, one of the most frequent questions I got was, "What fertilizer can I use to get my plants to flower?"

Answer: "None."

Modern marketing has sold us the idea that a 'flowering fertilizer' will make your plants flower, and we've bought it. But that's about as logical as saying, "Eat this multivitamin and you'll have a baby." Fertilizers are food, and food doesn't instigate sexual reproduction in the plant or animal world.

Let's go inside the 'mind' (or logic rather) of a plant for a minute. The purpose of life is to reproduce, and everything you do is geared towards that moment. You grow, vegetatively, for a while, maybe an entire season, maybe for fifty years, and reach sexual maturity eventually. You're now strong enough to put your energy into creating new life. Of course, you want everything to be just right in your environment so your offspring have the best chance for survival, and you want to ensure that you are at your peak of physical strength.

So, how does a plant make sure all these safeguards are in place? You wait for the right season, when water isn't too much or too little, you wait for nutrients to be at their most available, you want to be strong enough to thwart pests, and you want to choose a time when pests are at their weakest. So much of this depends on a season, and so many of these variables are not dependable, even seasonally. So, how do plants know when to . . . get it on?

Light. It's what horticulturalists and botanists refer to as a photoperiod. Photoperiods are essentially the length of day, versus the length of night. Some plants need a certain amount of light to flower, others need a certain amount of darkness to flower. Poinsettias are a plant that is notorious for its photoperiod, requiring less than 12 hours of light to initiate flowering. Some people just throw them in a closet for a few days in total darkness to prompt flowering. They need the dark, not the light, to flower.

There are short-day plants, and long-day plants. Short-day plants, as suggested, require a short day and a long night in order to flower, and long-day plants, the opposite. Not all plants have a photoperiod, and some are considered 'insensitive', but some can still be influenced to some degree with different durations of light.

A flowering fertilizer has a larger quantity of phosphorous, the middle number (30) in a 10-30-10 for example. Phosphorous is used by plants in larger quantities to produce flowering and reproductive tissues (as well as by the roots). So, providing a flowering fertilizer (or a transplant fertilizer, as they both have high phosphorous content, just a different label) will help your plants produce more flowers, and bigger flowers, but only if there are deficiencies of phosphorous within your soil to begin with. In no way, whatsoever, will fertilizer make your plants start popping out flowers.

Your plants are waiting for the right photoperiod, and if you give it that, flowers will surely follow. But, just as in humans and other animals, they only want to do it when the time is right, when environmental stress is at its least, and the plant can execute the plan with the least risk of failure. Stress kills the mood for us, and it does for plants too! Even with that being said, some plants are just stubborn and don't feel like it. They do, eventually, come around, but it can take a year or two to cycle through the seasons and get back to the right time, when the plant wants to.

Most of my plants flower around Christmas time. My African Violets flower from about December to February, my Aloe has flowered each winter, along with most other cacti, and many others just pump out the blossoms when the days get short, about 10 or 11 hours short. My plants are exposed to a full day of sun in the south-facing sunroom, so their exposure is very natural. In the home or office, with artificial lighting, blinds, curtains, walls and other obstructions, many plants get little, erratic or no changing photoperiod, making flowering unlikely or random.

Knowing where your plants originate can answer questions about their natural photoperiod, and then there's always google. Just get the watering optimized, feed regularly (which isn't even necessary, but will help your plant stay strong and produce more), and apply the desired photoperiod. Boom. Flowers!

Growing A Great Lawn/Garden - Modern Marketing Has You Working Harder and Spending More Than You Should!

Garden Smart, Not Hard.


Feeding Your Lawn/Garden
- a healthy organism starts with a healthy diet, lifestyle and environment

Nature provides plants with nutrients from numerous sources, in the form of minerals and organic matter, and the same goes for us. If you compared plant's nutritional requirements to ours, you would be surprised to find many similar nutrients in different quantities. Potassium, magnesium and iron are a few examples.

Plants namely get their 'vitamins and minerals' through minerals derived from rocks and sediment, and organic matter. Organic matter is any organic compound that comes from something that was once alive. This could be a banana peel, cow manure, a dead mouse or a pile of rotting leaves. All of these break down into useable nutrients by other organisms.

In the natural world, there is a constant breakdown and buildup of nutrients during the cycle of life and death. Quite often, human beings interrupt this cycle at one or more points and must then compensate for the disrupted balance. A perfect example of this is seen with the lawn and how we force ourselves to maintain it.

If a lawn was left to grow organically, with no added or removed nutrients and cultured by mother nature, it would be totally sustainable on its own. Expansive prairies and grasslands have proven how successful grass really is when left to its own devices. When we cut the lawn and remove the grass clippings, we are removing organic matter and nutrients which, if not replaced, will become depleted over time. This results in problems down the line and creates a need for added fertilizer and care by us. Essentially, we've taken something predominantly self-maintaining, and created work for ourselves and overhead, unnecessary cost.

Now, we could add nutrients in the form of organic matter, which would be the natural way, and what the lawn is used to. But, the availability, inexpensiveness and ease of use with chemical fertilizers makes this most people's first choice. Not to mention, the numerous marketing adds and suggestions in conventional gardening. Marketing ads pretty much tell you what your problem is, and the solution. We buy that, and assume it's the only way, but it's not. They only give you one possible 'solution', and that solution is their product. Modern marketing, for the most part, is selling us quick fixes that don't really solve the underlying issue, and only put a bandaid on certain symptoms. Without treating the root cause (pardon the plant pun), the problem persists, and you continue buying their product and treating the symptom. It's a perfect plan to keep customers coming back, and an even better marking ploy when your product facilitates other problems for which you have the "remedy".

No matter the merchandise, most conventional products are bandaids, not solutions.

Soil is more than just 'dirt'.

When you add organic matter, you are not just feeding your plants, you are feeding an entirely balanced and self-maintaining process in your soil. The plants you grow are a product of the quality of your soil, and if there are problems here, you will inevitably have problems with your plants. By adding, say, a thin layer of well-rotted compost to your lawn (topdressing), you are adding material that will incorporate itself into the soil over time. Nature is naturally slow-release everything. The compost will be further broken down by microbes, beneficial bacteria, insects and other organisms in the soil. This process is somewhat similar to the beneficial bacteria found in our intestines, known as 'gut flora', which help break down our food into usable material for our bodies. A soil with a wealth of healthy microbes is a much healthier lawn than one without. This is sort of the 'top of the food pyramid' in healthy soil. From here, we get into bigger and bigger organisms that really make the soil an entire ecosystem of its own. Worms are a very crucial critter that does wonders for all plants. They break down organic matter and aerate the soil at the same time. By burrowing into the lawn, they create air pockets that help water penetrate the soil, as well as keep air around the roots of plants (which is fundamental for plant growth). Soil compaction is actually the number one killer of urban plants, believe it or not. There many, many other insects, and even small mammals that live in your lawn, some beneficial, others not, but it is the cycle of life, death and rebirth that really makes it a functioning ecosystem. If we can just put the balance in the favour of the good guys, rather than try to control everything on our own, we can create a super lawn, one far healthier than a chemically treated, aerated, pesticide- and herbicide-laden lawn.

A monoculture is an environment that supports one type of life. Your lawn should never be a monoculture. Pesticides and herbicides exist solely to create this weak structure. Chemicals don't discriminate, and what kills the bad guys will surely kill the good guys too. Eventually, you've got grass and dirt, and you need to fill in all the missing pieces which is a lot of time and money lost for you.

So, what happens when someone decides to dose their lawn with some chemical fertilizer, to "green it up" overnight? They destroy those microbes and weaken the whole system. You get quick results that the companies like to market, but you've destroyed your lawn's health in so many other ways, meaning you will need to buy more of that 'great' product you just used when it wears off in two weeks . . . Money in their pocket. Not only that, but when you get all those other associated problems, you will need to look to their line of other lawn care products: insecticides, pesticides, re-seeding supplies, and of course, more fertilizer.

Fertilizer is toxic to animals, and it is to plants too, in excessive doses. There are numerous reports and studies that have made the public and governments aware of the toxicity of herbicides. Even minimal exposure over a period of time can change the human body in ways that last a lifetime. Most notably, pesticides and herbicides have been found to mimic hormones in the human body, throwing our body chemistry out of whack and causing premature puberty and other hormonal changes. The persistence of these chemicals is also very concerning. If a cow ate from a field treated with pesticides, the chemical would persist in their body long after, and when we eventually ate that cow, we would absorb those chemicals second-hand from the meat. These chemicals become part of us, sometimes forever and can even pass on to your children. There is so much evidence to support the immense health risk of exposure to chemicals, that countries such as Canada, have put out strict legislation banning the sale and use of synthetic, chemical pesticides and herbicides. When this legislation came into effect, the response was a bit panicked as people thought, "what do we do now"? The market had only educated the public enough to know that their product was the only solution, but there were other ways. Suddenly, people were finding new, organic ways to do things and the market changed too. Suddenly, companies were being forced to find a new product, a 'green' product, and many became available, and then even better ones followed. A decade later and the market is completely transformed. Innovation often only occurs out of necessity.

This pie chart shows a fairly typical soil that will
successfully support healthy growth.

We know that a human being who eats a healthy, balanced diet is far stronger than a person who eats a poor diet and loads up on vitamins and supplements. The same goes for plants. When you add chemical fertilizers to your lawn, you are killing off those microbes and beneficial bacteria that support your plant's health, strength and self-sufficiency. If they don't die that way, they'll die from starvation - lack of organic matter. When the top of the pyramid dies, the disruption flows downhill and the balance is disrupted on many levels. Now that your soil cannot support healthy life on a microbial level, it depends on you to make up for it. Every two weeks, if not more, you will need to supplement your plant's diet in order to have a living, green lawn.

But the problems don't stop there. As the soil becomes depleted and the remaining organic matter is used up, you eventually have a soil medium that is nutrient-void and developing other issues. A healthy foundation creates a sound home, and the same goes for people and plants. Once the foundation starts to crack, problems start showing up everywhere, as everything is connected. Watering problems often accompany a poor soil, as organic matter helps hold water and releases it over time, creating a 'spongier' soil. Lack of worms and other burrowing creatures means we now need to aerate mechanically. Everything nature did must now be done by or supplemented by us. The plant's natural defences suffer, and because so many of the beneficial microbes and bacteria are gone, it opens up an opportunity for the non-beneficial, malicious ones that harm your plants. Just like a human being with a healthy diet and lifestyle, plants with a healthy diet and environment are much more capable of fending of stress, disease and death.

A particle of soil is a healthy composition of many things
that work in conjunction with each other to keep your
lawn/garden healthy and strong.

Your lawn now depends on you to compensate for the problems, and we have been driven to compensate with quick fixes that really don't contribute to the health or longevity of your plants (lawn) at all. The solutions are really only bandaids, and the original problems are never addressed. We end up putting so much work into having a beautiful lawn, which ultimately becomes very synthetic. It has become an unstable environment in which to grown things, and we are accountable for the success and failure of it. There's a thin line drawn between the two if all depends on you. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" - Gestalt theory. Basically, it's saying a that two people can accomplish the work of three if they work together, but alone, they can only accomplish what two individuals can. If your lawn has an army of life supporting it, and you're the commander and chief, the potential for success is far greater than if it were you and a bag of fertilizer.

So many people think that the key to a healthy, lush, green lawn is fertilizer. And, of course, the name-brand fertilizer companies want you to believe that's exactly true, but it's not, at all. You would have a far healthier lawn if you applied a non-chemical, natural fertilizer, or top dressed with manure of compost. You would actually have a healthier lawn if you didn't use any fertilizer at all and just left your lawn completely alone, as opposed to using a chemical fertilizer. If you supported the life in the soil, you would find no need to aerate for the most part, or apply fertilizer every other week, or water every day. You would find that your lawn got fewer diseases and infestations, and that it was much more self-maintaining overall. Consider yourself the boss of billions of organisms supporting your lawn -- the best bosses are the ones that support their workers, provide direction and tools to work smart, not hard, and encourage a positive end through positive means. Not the ones that try to do everything themselves or micromanage everyone so no one functions as part of the whole any longer.

If you fertilized with a pelleted organic fertilizer, and for some reason missed a dosing, you probably wouldn't notice a difference in your lawn right away. Weeks could go by without any major change. The same situation with a chemical fertilizer would yield visible deterioration within days. Once a chemical fertilizer runs out, it's 100% done feeding your lawn and you are the only one that can replace those nutrients. An organic lawn with a healthy soil will continue to break down organic matter which is very hard to deplete in a healthy lawn. The things is, you can't really have too much organic matter. It sits and waits to be broken down by microbes and other natural processes and slowly released to the soil and plants. When you are dosing a lawn with an organic fertilizer, you are not replenishing a depleted soil, you are contributing to an already healthy and functioning system and keeping everything topped up. The cycle never stops completely the way chemicals stop working, and the process is ongoing with or without you, totally unlike chemical fertilizers and synthetic processes that we provide.

Nature's fertilizer, and all your plants will ever need for
optimal health. 

Don't remove what nature is trying to recycle. The clippings from your lawn mowing will dry and decompose within a few days, returning to the soil and feeding your plants. Not to mention, supporting the soil life and overall health of the entire system. If microbes can't feed, they die. It's free food for you plants, and less work for you. Fallen leaves in autumn are one of nature's greatest food sources. Leaves are a very nutrient-rich food source when they begin to compost, so much so that without them, forests would die of starvation if this process didn't exist for them annually. If you have fallen leaves, run them over with the lawnmower and let the decompose into free, premium plant food.


Water 
- the number one way to keep your lawn green

Your lawn is programmed, through years of evolution, to expect a certain amount and schedule of water. It isn't like clockwork, but it is relatively consistent. Most regions that support a lengthy growing season of many months will see rain at least a couple of times per week.

Often, we think 'more is more' when it comes to watering your lawn, and more often too. Sprinkler systems are often set to run every night for a half an our or so. This is so unnecessary and detrimental to your lawn's growth.

When there is always water at the surface, roots don't
need to search for water below and remain short.
When water is allowed to deplete to lower levels, the
root system becomes longer and stronger and more
capable of finding water during a draught.

When you water a plant every day, the plant learns to expect that there is always water at the soil surface. Because this is where most of the water is, the roots never go in search of water and remain where the water is. Lawns with daily watering schedules rarely grow root systems more than a couple of inches deep.

In nature, grass plants grow root systems about six inches long. This is because of their need to search for water, and soil dries quickly from the top down. In spring, when grass plants are small (and their root systems are smaller as well), it often rains more frequently and tapers off as hot, dry summers approach. The abundance of water early on keeps short root systems well-watered. As the rain becomes less frequent, the soil dries from the top downwards and the roots are forced to stretch deeper to find ground water below. By the time a summer draught hits, the plants have developed a strong, lengthy root system that can still find subterranean water when the top of the soil is parched. This long roots system is the difference between life and death in a severe draught.

Your lawn, in the same situation, is destined to go dormant (dry and brown, what many people think is dead), for weeks or months, even with daily watering. The reason being, in extremely hot temperatures, the top couple of inches of soil can dry out in a matter of a day. It only takes one severe dehydration for a plant to cause shrivelled, dead leaves, and ultimately a dormant or even dead lawn. A short root system just can't find water in dry times because it's inches below where the plant never had to go before.

The golden rule of lawn/garden watering

Two to three times per week, water a lot at once to fully saturate the soil about six inches down, not just the top layer. This is in accordance with nature too - if she's watering well, then you don't need to. 

A newly seeded lawn will require daily watering that tapers off over a month or two so you are only watering two to three times per week.

This is an add for a fertilizer brand. A fertilizer simply
cannot make this happen. A brown, dormant lawn would
need water to break dormancy. Because fertilizers can only be
 absorbed by plants dissolved in water, the owner of this lawn,
no doubt, watered their lawn more frequently as suggested
by the fertilizer package directions, resulting in new,
green growth.

***Note: Most fertilizers companies have lead us all to believe that nitrogen, the first number on the bag (i.e., a 21-7-7 fertilizer has 21 parts nitrogen, 7 parts phosphorous, and 7 parts potassium) is the sole contributer to a green lawn. But a brown lawn will never turn green again without water, it's dead or dormant (which means the top is dead and the roots are waiting to sprout new green leaves when the time is right). Though nitrogen will make your lawn greener, it will not make a brown lawn green again. 

The marketing of nitrogen has gotten so out of control, so much so that the majority of the nitrogen in a leading brand's bag of fertilizer leaches away into the groundwater and only a small portion is actually used. People have been convinced that more is more, but at a certain point more is just useless, wasteful and eventually harmful. Plants can only take up so much at a time, the rest sits in the soil and washes away with the next watering. You would find that watering with a 20-20-20 fertilizer would yield results close to or exactly the same as a brand-name fertilizer, and an organic lawn, even better results still. 


Combatting Weeds 
- An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

The best way to combat weeds is to outcompete them. A healthy lawn with strong, dominant grass will outcompete other plants if given a chance.

Don't cut your lawn unnecessarily short. The more soil that is exposed, the more places there are for weed seeds to land and start to grow. Exposed soil means access to sun for new plants, and if there's a patch of soil with sun and no plant, don't expect it to stay that way for long. Cut your lawn so the blades of grass are as long as possible.

Removing more than one third of a plant at any point in its life will stress it, halt growth and weaken it. Try never to cut your more than one third off of the blade of grass. Keep your lawn healthy, long and strong.

Lastly, over-seed. This is such a great way to prevent weeds. If there are weed seeds waiting to germinate, and there most certainly are, they will sprout the second they have soil, moisture and sun. Grass seeds will remain dormant right alongside weed seeds, waiting for the right time to sprout, so fill those spaces in with grass instead of weeds!

Why create more work for yourself?

• Go organic. Chemicals are synthetic, synthetic things don't last and only make more work as time goes on
• Let your lawn fertilize itself, slowly, over time with organic matter added every month or so
• Don't remove any organic matter and then replace it with chemicals. It's like removing fruits and vegetables from your diet and taking vitamins - not the route to health. Leave grass clippings and leaves to decompose and feed your plants naturally
• Foster a healthy ecosystem of functional, beneficial life in your lawn so your lawn/garden will take care of itself and depend less on you
• Water two to three times per week, a lot at once rather than a little bit often. Less is more!
• Don't expose soil if you don't want weeds to grow there. Mulch is a great way to prevent this in flower/vegetable gardens, as it breaks down to provide organic matter while preventing seeds from sprouting in exposed soil. 
• Don't cut your lawn too short or dormant seeds will sprout in exposed soil
• Don't remove more than one third of your plants if you don't have to
• Over-seed your lawn to create a thick, impenetrable lawn with nowhere for impostors to take hold

The Pitcher Plant: Pitcher A Time When . . . Plants Eat People!

Pitchers that are about to unfurl
and open.

Another carnivorous plant, the Pitcher Plant, definitely deserves some renown. This plant barely resembles a plant visually, and doesn't act much like one either. Evolution has taken some organisms to crazy places!

The pitcher plant is found in the carnivorous plant group - yes, they eat animals. This evolutionary wonder has turned its leaves into large death traps that instantly brews its own nutritious soup once an animals falls in. Mostly, insects are the victims, but inside these 'pitchers', mice, rats and small birds have often been found.

Pitcher Plants have a large genetic variance, and there are numerous different types that vary greatly from one plant to the next. They are some of the most exotic looking plants you will ever see, like something out of a science fiction movie. There are small ones that you could fit in your pocket, pitchers and all, and there are large ones with pitchers that can hold many litres of water. The bigger the stomach, the bigger the appetite!

An epiphytic Pitcher
Plant. See the tendril
suspending the pitcher.

Pitcher plants lure their victims with food in the form of nectar or the prospect of water, and if this isn't enough, they will use visual cues (hence, the red colouring) as well to entice their victims to inspect. Once on the slippery brim of the pitcher, it isn't long before one missed step lands the victim in the pool of water below at the base of the pitcher. The brim of the pitcher is often very hard and waxy, thereby, making a strong footing near impossible. This same ledge often also develops grooves and an angle that suggest falling into the pitcher rather than out, and a bright red colouring to attract potential meals. Once inside, the plant has even evolved mechanisms of retaining its prey: waxy scales, protruding aldehyde crystals, cuticular ("skin") folds, and downward pointing hairs all prevent escape, resulting in death by drowning or exhaustion.


The pools of liquid within the plant are called phytotelmata. They drown the victim and gradually dissolved it over time, providing a constant source of nutrition, mainly in the form of nitrogen and phosphorous. This liquid death trap is a mix of rainwater, bacteria and the plant's own digestive juices. Sometimes they are found to be harbouring specific insect larvae that also eat the feast and feed the plant with their excrement. Essentially, the pitcher is a large, open-topped stomach cavity with colours, scents and flavours that attract potential meals.

The largest groups of Pitcher Plants are Nepenthaceae and Sarraceniaceae groups. They are comprised of over 100 types of Pitcher Plants. There are Pitcher Plants that appear to have no leaves, and only pitchers standing stark upright, waiting for food. Then there are old-world Pitcher Plants that still have leaves and have evolved to have their pitchers on the end of a long tendril (the midrib) hanging from the end of the leaf. These old-world Pitcher Plants have also evolved to climb trees and make their homes in the canopy. Plants 'climb trees' in between generations, so: Plant makes flowers, seeds and bird eats the fruit. Bird defecates on tree branch, baby plant grows. Plants that grow on other plants are called epiphytes and have evolved to do so with specific roots and other environmental adaptations. Pitcher plants are not parasitic, as they do not harm the trees they grow on.

The Pitcher Plant in flower.

Carnivorous plants are usually found in places that have nutrient-poor substrate, and the plants supplements this by making its own food. Bogs, marshes and other wet places such as these are often highly acidic, and when the pH is extreme in either direction, nutrients often become 'locked up' and are unavailable to plants. This, paired with a low concentration of nutrients in the first place leaves Pitcher Plants ahead of it's competition and has allowed it to thrive and evolve even more into the amazing and totally unique plant that it is.

Corpse Flower - Bigger Is Better!

Rafflesia is surprisingly unknown, for having the largest flower on the planet (at least in weight, it is rivalled by Amorphophallus titanum, which is sometimes larger in size but weighs less). It has been known to man since the last 1700's after being found in Java, yet few have heard of or seen this plant.


Rafflesia part of the extensive group known as parasitic plants. There are actually about 28 different species of Rafflesia, all found in Asia. Rafflesia are strange in that they remain completely elusive until they flower. They have a organ called a 'haustorium' that spreads inside the vines of other plants and absorbs nutrients from them. They have no leaves or visible plant organs outside of the host they parasitize, save for the blossom. The only time Rafflesia emerges into the daylight is to flower and fruit, when it sends out its stunning, absurdly large inflorescence.


The flowers of this magnificent plant can weigh up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds), and can reach diameters of over 1 meter (39 inches)! Even the smallest Rafflesia species' flower is a foot across. The seed pods are also quite large and are often eaten by small mammals or rodents who then disperse the seeds.

Usually, we think of flowers as emitting a lovely, sweet perfume. They do this to attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds who expect to get a sugary, nectar treat upon arrival. The plants usually reward them with a meal and send them on their way with some pollen attached and perhaps having received some pollen from another flower elsewhere.


The five-petaled flowers of Rafflesia give off a horrid stench resembling rotting flesh, giving this plant the common name of "Corpse Flower". They do this to attract insects as well, but insects that feed on carrion, like flies. It's all a ruse, and the flies get nothing in return after having be lured to the Rafflesia flower, sprinkled with pollen and sent on their way.

Coral - Plant or Animal? More of a... Planimal.

Based on appearances alone, most coral look more like plants than animals. Appearances can be deceiving though, as coral are part of the animal kingdom. Why talk about them here then?

The majority of corals live in shallow, saltwater environments in what we call coral reefs and they require exposure to the sun in order to survive. Some coral are able to catch micro-organisms and small fish but this isn't their main food source. They look like plants and they act like plants - must be an animal!

The reason coral need the sun to survive is actually for the purpose of photosynthesis, but it's not them that does the work. It's more of a contractual, mutually beneficial relationship they have with photosynthetic, unicellular algae known as zooxanthellae. Even the coral that eat other small animals still rely predominantly on zooxanthellae as their primary food source. These unicellular algae live in the tissue of the coral and provide constant nourishment for the coral, who, in return, provides room and board and safety. 

Even algae are not classified as plants, but the majority of them do photosynthesize like plants. In this case, it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and I'm going to call it a duck, or as close to a duck as it gets!

Zooxanthellae, also referred to as Symbiodinium, are the largest group of their kind known to science. Most algae are either free-floating or affixed to a solid surface (rocks, other plants, turtle shells, etc.). Zooxanthellae are unique in that they work together with animals and coexist with them exclusively in order to survive. This type of coexistence is known as endosymbiotic. This living arrangement is not restricted to coral alone, zooxanthellae can also be found in the tissue of sea anemones and jellyfish.



Long story short, coral are innovative, unique creatures that have managed to farm their food right in their bodies. They no longer need to hunt or scavenge, they don't even need to move! Life spent basking in the sun as the landlord for millions of algae who pay you in food - that's an easy life!

NEXT BLOG: A plant that wreaks of death and could swallow your child whole!

Corpse Flower - Bigger Is Better!

Cloning - Easier Than You Thought!

Cloning animals - next to impossible. Cloning plants - exceptionally easy (for many types of plants) and pretty much foolproof! Oftentimes, it is impossible to get plants to stop cloning themselves! A perfect example: Your lawn.


Human beings have a fascination with the concept of cloning. The idea of taking an exceptionally complex organism with billions of DNA strands and reproducing an exact replica, is really quite profound! For the most part, cloning of animals is rare, except in the case of identical twins and the odd sheep that scientists offend God with by cloning...

A Kalanchoe with clones growing
on the leaf margins (edges).

With many plants, cloning is a primary form of reproduction. They do this by means of 'vegetative propagation'. This can be accomplished in a multitude of ways: offsets (clones that grow right off the base of the parent), stolons (modified roots that grow along the soil surface and grow clones along the way - think of Spider Plants), and some even grow clones right on the edges of their leaves which then drop off and root themselves. Imagine if we grew our children on our arms and they just dropped off and started living their lives as we went about our day. Simple and efficient, none of this 20+ years of raising offspring! Oh... To be a plant.

One of the strangest ways to clone a plant is to just cut off a piece and stick it in water or soil. Imagine if we could do that with animals! Just break off a finger, stick it in a glass of water and grow a whole new you! Creepy, actually...


When vegetatively propagating plants from 'cuttings', many plants are picky when it comes to where they will grow new root tissue. Plants have cells in what is called the meristematic tissue, and these cells are akin to stem cells in us. They have no assigned role yet, and can become a leaf cell, a root cell, a stem cell (a plant stem), etc.. Meristems are located all over plants and are concentrated at the growing tips (where most of the new tissue is produced) along with different hormones that are controlling exactly what is going on. When attempting to root a cutting, it is often these meristems that we want to use to ensure the best chance of root cells developing.


There is an entire industry that now revolves around 'Meristematic Tissue Culture'. This is a microscopic procedure where scientists or botanists or whomever (even the layperson can now do this) removes meristematic tissue cells and places them in a sugar-rich environment (plant sugars or plant food) in a petri dish. In this environment, these cells multiply and begin differentiating the cells to become every part of a whole new plant clone. The orchid industry has flourished with this type of propagation as it is easer than producing new orchids from seed (a microscopic venture of its own) and few orchids breed true to their parent's genetics. The best way to get a replica of an orchid is with meristematic tissue culture, and harvesting even one meristematic tip of an orchid can produce hundreds if not thousands of tiny microscopic clones!


Next time you pass an African Violet, break off a leaf and stick it in a glass of water or pot of soil. A whole new plant, or two or three, will grow from it! Before you know it, you could be overrun with a small army of plants! Not really, but I smell a sequel to Little Shop of Horrors...






NEXT BLOG - If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's usually not a duck.

Coral - Plant or Animal? More of a... Planimal.