Resurrection Fern — A Metaphor in Verse for Nature’s Simplicity

11 Photos

An Exemplar for Simplicity in a World of Expanding Complexity

I will mention but not dwell upon the fact that Covid-19 house-arrest spurs reflecting, creating, and writing… and encourages me to flourish in Nature whenever I can. March 21, 2020 I drove the short three miles to Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve to hike the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail. I know, the old forester below looks like he may already be suffering from some serious malady!

 

I hiked the day after yet another inch-plus of rain. My timing had purpose — I wanted to see the rich variety of life clinging to trees, especially the amazing resurrection fern… in its full moisture-laden glory. I also saw ubiquitous lichens and mosses in vivid splendor adorning saturated bark, branches, and rocks… their presence highlighted by the deep shade of continuing dense cloud cover. However, today I am focusing on one of my favorite gifts of Nature: resurrection fern.

 

And as I have recently been emboldened to do (by completing a winter term poetry writing course), I offer today’s reflections principally in verse. Magically, even the trail sign is framed by resurrection fern.

 

I discovered this morning as I write this that over the past couple of years I have restricted my photography by and large to the verdant, fully-hydrated version of resurrection fern. I could find no clear photos of the desiccated, dry-dormant version. The best I could do to represent that state of shut-down is this massive oak at Camp McDowell adorned with its robe of dry resurrection fern. Ah, if only I had anticipated this Post and compiled a portfolio of withered fern.

 

So, there you have my foreword, setting the stage for my latest verse… a testament to a wonderfully resilient non-flowering native plant, with a stress-dealing mechanism tested and honed over 360 million years!

Striving for…and with…Simplicity

 

Release a spore to the wind

Trust it to find suitable anchorage,

This special fern finds all it needs

Perched high in the fork of a tree

 

Resurrection fern, Pleopeltis michauxiana

Southeastern USA forest resident,

An epiphyte of high aerial regard

Clinging to branches and bark

 

No parasite this exquisite plant

Non-flowering, just like other pteridophytes,

But vascular, unlike neighbor-mosses,

Yet all are green with chloroplasts ablaze

 

No need to reach for the sun

The tree does the vertical work,

No need for forest soil and deep roots

Tree surfaces bear water and nutrients

 

Yet from time to time showers lessen

Hot breezes swing the boughs,

No moisture within reach

Time to close the door… rest

 

The fern knows the drill,

Responding with adaptation,

Hitting the off switch, drawing within,

Wilting without complaint

 

Master of dry-spell deception

The fern sleeps with drought,

Desiccated, feigning death, withered

Simply turning life off with ease

 

Waiting patiently, anxiety-free,

Knowing the rain will come,

As it always does in these humid climes,

Resuscitating the deceased

 

Springing to life with turgid cells

Moisture awakens the dead,

Resurrected from deepest sleep

Arboreal garden alive and green

 

No lesser organisms are these,

Finding plenty amid scarcity,

Thriving for 360 million years

Adaptable to whatever tomorrow brings

 

(Do we humans know the drill,

Responding with science and sense,

Hitting the off switch, drawing within,

Beating Covid-19 with social distance?)

 

Should humans fail the test,

Ferns will grace the remains, and

Festoon the decay of civilization,

Declaring their reign of simplicity

 

Release a spore to the wind

Trust it to find suitable anchorage,

An epiphyte of high aerial regard

Clinging to branches and bark

 

 

Leonardo da Vinci observed: Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world. I agree… and offer that Nature is the consummate artist.

 

An epiphyte of high aerial regard

Clinging to branches and bark

 

Release a spore to the wind

Trust it to find suitable anchorage,

This special fern finds all it needs

Perched high in the fork of a tree

 

No parasite this exquisite plant

Non-flowering, just like other pteridophytes,

But vascular, unlike neighbor-mosses,

Yet all are green with chloroplasts ablaze

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A two-hour Covid-escape hike reveals magic, spurs contemplation, and lifts spirits. Perhaps we require something like a global pandemic to give us pause, consider our place in the world, and draw together for the common good. We need Nature’s places far more than she needs us. No matter our fate, Nature will reach far beyond our time and place.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Natural Rules of Simplicity

 

I often look back 500 years to seek enlightenment from Leonardo da Vinci, who saw wisdom in Nature and expressed it simply and profoundly. Some examples:

• In her (nature’s) inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.
• Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.
• Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.
• Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.
• Nature never breaks her own laws.

Resurrection fern, whose moniker so beautifully expresses its secret to life and living, is simplicity itself:

• An ancient form, long ago proven fit and sustainable
• Spore disseminated, wind-dependent
• An epiphyte, elevated anchorage courtesy of trees
• Stress-coping as its mainstay
• Relatively free from grazers
• Writes no poetry
• Concerns itself not with philosophy, fate, or social distancing
• It is what it is

Simplicity rules the day, the year, the centuries, the eons!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All three are available on Amazon and other online sources.

Here are the three succinct truths I draw from this Blog Post:

1. Simplicity ensures evolutionary success
   
2. Nature is the consummate artist
3. Nature’s power to inspire and lift us is unfathomable — jettison the potential mental, physical, social, and spiritual anguish of Covid-19 by escaping to nearby Nature

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire and Reward you… and keep you healthy!

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

• People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
• They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

 

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring in Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Release a spore to the wind

Trust it to find suitable anchorage,

An epiphyte of high aerial regard

Clinging to branches and bark