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Introduction: Finding Our Way Back– Reconnecting with the Plant World
Oregon Grape This is the first of 14 essays that I wrote on plant knowledge that appeared on the Portland Indymedia Website from January 12, 2008 until May 8, 2010. They appeared as skill shares....
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Mistletoe – a festive native plant
Mistletoe and the Garry Oak Tree At this time of the year in many western and European countries you will see mistletoe put up as a holiday decoration. Is it a native plant in the Cascadian bioregion?...
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Honoring Our Ancestral Plants: Wapato
Wapato Wapato – Sagittarian Latifolia ( Broadleaf Arrowhead, tule potato, duck potato, arrowleaf). This story was told to me. I have never seen Wapato. I search for it often to release it back into...
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On the forest trail – I am thankful
I went into the forest today to be thankful for the bounty and ask Great Spirit who loves us all to teach me about these amazing beings we call plants. I had that feeling I often have that I once lived...
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2012 – the year of transformation – reconnecting to the earth through native...
Mt. Rainer and Native Lupines by Ellen O'Shea In 2012 I will strive to educate others to be able to go into any natural area and not only identify, but bring native plants back into their lives. I will...
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Beginning Botany in a New Year – What are plants and where do they come from?
“PLANT BLINDNESS is a modern phenomenon whereby humans walk through their world each day and do not notice plants, nor do they know the name, the physiological, ethnobotanical, herbological or...
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The Leaf
The Leaf “Oh leaf, you must surely have found strength to force the branch to burst open so that you could emerge. What did you do to become free from the prison? Speak, Speak…” -Rumi A leaf is like a...
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The 12 most important deciduous native trees in the Cascadian Bio-region
BIG LEAF MAPLE (Acer macrophyllum) Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they...
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The 12 Most Important Decidious Native Trees in the Cascadian Bio-region
Red Alder (Alnus rubra) During the storm I dreamt of Red Alder. I dreamt that the spirit of the tree was leading me away from danger. Then I woke and saw ruts of the big machines and I cried for the...
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White or Paper Birch (Betula Papyrifera)
Earth’s the right place for love: I don’t know where it’s likely to go better. I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could...
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The Journey
‘And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?’ – Rumi In April 2013 I began a journey that I thought would take me to the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula, instead the path...
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Into the Hoh
There are places on the earth where everything is in balance. Places where the boundaries between humans and nature disappear. Upon entrance to these natural places the human spirit leaves the cloak...
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