Nurses and Eliasomes

Last night, the in-laws, Sweetie and I drove to see a young relative of ours go through Her pinning ceremony for Nursing School.

We heard a great speech that perfectly explained to us non-nurses what these students have gone through to obtain their degree.

This morning, I will head outside and plant the dozen bloodroot (sanguinara canadensis)seeds that I harvested yesterday from the little plants that I started from a root a few years ago.

C. loves nursing and She will be a fine one. Her personality is perfectly adapted to the work that will be required of Her.

So it is with nature, too: each species adapts to a particular niche and fills it perfectly.

Bloodroot is an ephemereal. That means it pops up briefly in the spring, absorbing the early sunlight of the forest before the trees leaf out. This is a niche in time and place that most other plant species don't exploit.

The seed includes an odd little white tail that looks like a little worm. It's called an eliasome. To an ant, crawling about the leaf litter in May, the eliasome is a gift from heaven, an anty Dunkin Donut that it is quite happy to haul away home, with the seed included. Thus the seed is assured locomotion to a new place and proper burial.

One cannot simply dry this seed and then plant it any old time or place, like carrots or beans. One has to be mindful of the specific conditions to which the plant is adapted: moist, cool soil, with a minimum of sunlight.

So I must sow today, before the seeds dry out, in a place where they will not be disturbed during the long summer months. Only in the fall will they finally awaken and only in the spring will I see the plants emerging from the soil.

This is what they look like: