Invasion or evolution?
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows." Doug Larson
Nature is reasserting itself in our garden. This is our back 'lawn' - and as you can see it is very lush and green. But it's not grass - we have struggled for literally decades to grow grass here - battling drought, dogs, rabbits and just rotten soil. But now it is almost covered with oxalis which seems to love growing here - and everywhere else at the moment.
Now of course oxalis is considered a weed, maybe a noxious weed even as it does indeed seem to take over.
But it's rather beautiful for a lawn - sure you need to cut it or else it just looks lumpy but you have to cut grass (if you can get it to grow) as well. It's also rather beautiful in flower - as here. It is flowering everywhere at the moment. In this garden that I passed on my walk today - admittedly a neglected one as the house is currently partially demolished and uninhabited - there was a large part of a garden bed taken over by oxalis, looking as if it had indeed been deliberately planted. And indeed why not? It's just as beautiful as any other yellow flowering plant.
Ditto for it's companion shown below - wandering jew is it's common name; or lilies growing in a creek bed or daisies on a nature strip - which reminded me of daisy chains, and daisies growing in the centuries old lawns of stately homes in England.
Why do we consider them to be unwanted - even despised and targeted for destruction? Is it because they are 'foreigners' - imported into the country from elsewhere? Or is it because they take over and potentially destroy what was there before? so what about a native that takes over - as shown here - the native clematis in rather lovely, wispy flower, strangling a native kunzea bush. Now kunzea is a very nondescript plant and grows everywhere around here in a weedlike fashion itself but it is indeed native and you can find both of these plants in nurseries. So should I tear down the clematis and save the kunzea or should I let nature take its course?
I started on this topic because I have just finished reading this book by the Indian writer Amitav Ghosh which was about a number of different things, but the bit that I'm focussing on here is that notion of invasion or evolution when applied to animals and people - illustrated by the stories of two meals focussed on fish.
The two meals are theoretically the same - the second being a reconstruction of the first, however the first was cooked in Bengal and the second in America. In both instances it was very important the chosen fish were native to the mangrove forests of the Sundarban area of Bengal and Bangladesh. In America the cook of the story discovered that the fish he was seeking were now available in America - but that they were also considered as invasive species. To be quite honest I am now confused which fish went into which dish - but basically we are talking of carp, snakeheads and climbing perch.
And out of interest - the dishes were a simple fried fish; a yoghurt based curry and whole fish, first fried, then cooked with ginger and tomatoes. I think
It doesn't really matter which fish dishes - I might do a post on Bengali fish dishes some other time. The point as applying to my theme for today is that these fish - native in India are invaders in America. And yet they are delicious, in the same way that the weeds are pretty. I should also note here that in my brief exploration of pictures of the dishes in my own cookbooks and also online there were numerous recipes using different fish. Well why not? I'm sure they would be equally delicious.
And of course, in their native habitat they are not invasive. When taken somewhere else they become weeds. But (a) not necessarily - think tomatoes in Italy, potatoes in Europe and (b) they might be able to be appreciated for themselves. Carp for example, here in Australia is an invasive species that is indeed preying on native fish, and also by sheer numbers replacing them. Carp are a delicacy foodwise throughout Asia. Why don't we eat them here? It may well not solve the problem, but it could at least ease it.
Keeping things as they are has never been what has happened throughout Earth's history. The flora, fauna and landscape developed. Over millions of years there was a steady evolution from amoeba to man during which species came and went, sometimes leaving a living trace like the apparently 4% of Neanderthal that everyone out of Africa carries in their structure, sometimes leaving just a fossilised print in a rock. Sometimes disappearing completely.
And, of course, once homo sapiens dominated the changes accelerated. The Aboriginals themselves may have been responsible for the dominance of the eucalypt and the wattle trees in the Australian environment through their controlled burning efforts. Is that bad, or were there also benefits? Many seem to think so and are eager to learn from them.
As to invaders in the human sense, like just about everything in life, invasion is generally a disastrous upheaval to begin with, but may eventually enrich whilst merging the old and the new. There is exchange of ideas, importation of new things and new ways of thinking.
Purity is never a good thing. It's too close to exremism, which is to be avoided at all costs. It's why we don't breed with our brothers and sisters and other close relatives. Inbreeding leads to disease and disability, although in the very earliest of the days of homo sapiens it was surely inevitable. Which is why today's migrations of peoples will always eventually enrich the countries they adopt. When we go to a new place we take our history and our home with us - physically exhibited by our clothes, our food, our traditions, our language - even if you think it's the same - like English as spoken in England and in Australia - or any other English speaking country on the planet. But over time the immigrant adapts to the new country and the new country absorbs some aspects of their new citizens' culture and traditions whilst moderating them along the way. Whilst some see the influx of 'foreigners' as an invasion, it ultimately leads to the evolution of a new society.
Well that's what we hope for.
As I walked this afternoon I mulled these tentative ideas over in my head and thought that they were grand thoughts, but of course when it comes to writing them down it all becomes overwhelmingly hard to express. I may try again one day in the distant future but I'll leave it there for now and go and reheat some leftovers for dinner.
YEARS GONE BY
August 26
2024 - Making kefir palatable
2023 - Herbes de Provence
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Disappointing Tin Shed
2018 - Nothing
2016 - The use-by date
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