Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Treatise on Typha

Yesterday and today I've been working. A lot. Hard work. That ends in "ow." I've been getting ready for my research season, and that means setting up one square meter enclosures, adding one square meter of sod, either Phragmites australis (common reed grass), Typha angustifolia (narrow leaf cattail) or a mix of native wetland plants. The cattail sod- she's an SOB.

I've cut sod before. I know how it goes. It's nothing unbearable, but not easy either. Cattail sod just kills you. Takes so much freaking work. It *is* unbearable. It's been a great "know thy enemy" couple of days. And here's what I've learned about Typha.

Typha is superior to humans in all ways- better defenses, stronger, more benevolent, and more cunning.

By rights, Typha should be ruler of the land as it has the upper hand in all things.

It is by the will of the cattail alone that humans spread as we do across the land.

Typha is my benevolent master, and only because Typha allows it can I study Typha and manipulate it as I do. I am nothing without cattail.

All that being said, I'm just one human and like humans, I am malevolent, stubborn, short-sighted, and dull witted. Being all of these things, I will continue my pursuit of the destruction of Typha until it is done. I shall not just study, but destroy Typha angustifolia. I shall not rest until I have eaten the heart of the beast.

Or, more appropriately considering that it's a plant and I'm a vegetarian- until I chew the root of the Commelinid.

Vegetarian- an old Mayan word for "bad hunter." :-)

No comments:

Post a Comment