Nature's Apps

Cell phone apps have become a normal part of our lives in recent years.  There is an app for everything, right?  We all know about at least one stupid app, do I have to name one?  Maybe the one that makes fart noises; do we really need an app for that?

Why is the idea of the app so appealing?  Well, because it's the way our brains are wired.  I would go as far as to say the way modern man uses apps is the way primitive man used (and uses) plants.  But plant "apps" have multiple dimensions of identification: shape, color, size, texture, smell, etc.  To some this makes plants super easy to identify.  Find a plant with the right combination of these dimensions and you can identify a plant to heal, a plant to feed, a plant to build, and so much more.  We know our phone apps better because we use them constantly.  But the same is true of plants that we use so repetitively as to develop a meaningful relationship with that plant.  Each plant, especially useful ones, has those unique physical attributes that are readily recognizable by the senses and neural function of humans and animals, maybe even other plants (dare I go there?).  The keys to learning "plant apps" safely are mentor-ship, intense study and practice; and by practice I mean safe, thoughtful practice.

Mentor-ship is important for a myriad of reasons.  Misidentification is extremely dangerous, as possibly expressed by the experiences of Mr. McCandless (still up for debate).  Plant knowledge, for eons, has been ancestral; passed down in practice and in story.  Civilization has always had a way forsaking ancestral knowledge; what good would pharmaceuticals be if everyone could heal themselves with weeds from the sand-lot.  All we modern forager-wanna-be's can do is either go tribal, or pick the brain of someone who has spent no less than a lifetime in the study of plant use in the same region you want to learn about.  Why a lifetime?  Because they are still alive, and you want to be...for a lifetime.  You don't have to move in with the mentor and you can have multiple mentors.  The amount of trust you put in your mentor's information should usually be commensurate with the amount of time they have had in their craft and their track record.  If you take advice from someone with less experience verify that info a little harder before you use that plant.  But at the end of the day, we all have to take risks to learn anything.  But this is an article about how plants are like apps, so I digress.

When you unlock your phone to go for an app, you know exactly what folder that app is in, what the app looks like, and what it's main use is.  Apps are life-hacks, they are the backbone of modern business and life on-the-go.  Plants are also life-hacks.  When a good forager is looking for a specific plant, he knows what area to go to, what the plant looks like from a distance, what it smells like, what it looks like from a few feet away, the texture, the shape of its different parts, the color, and the taste.  He also knows probably two or three specific uses for that plant.  That's a real app for you!  Humans are supposed to be totally tied-to and dependent on plant life to support everything they do.  That is truth.  Any deviation from this realization leads us down a slippery slope.  "Sustainable Development" is a slippery slope.  Technology does a lot of great things, but it should not separate us from nature or enslave us.  An important part of a natural life is relearning old technology and applying it in a sustainable manner.  We can utilize technology to do this.  True freedom is in embracing the natural world; physically, mentally, even spiritually.  Bottom-line, you can fill up your phone with a thousand useful apps, but the sum will never be as useful as an intimate knowledge of one plant that grows in between the blades of grass in your lawn.  Don't let the truth pass you by, er...don't pass by the truth.

Some apps to download to your brain:

Lantana

Peppergrass

Caesar Weed (by Jerry Oldenettel)

Nasturiums (by quisnovus)

Cattail