Plant Mindfulness

Plant awareness disparity (PAD)—which was previously known as plant blindness but renamed to avoid ableism—I would prefer to call "plant unawareness."  https://lithub.com/seeing-green-why-we-should-all-be-paying-attention-to-plants/ addresses the negative feedback loop that is PAD.  

Nature's Notebook has been a great way to focus my attention on the details of plant growth and change.  Two Mondays each month has me out in the Cottonwood Gallery (CWG) taking meticulous notes on our specimens.  With our ongoing data collection, we now have 10 years of nearly uninterrupted data.  

For the two years, the Nature's Notebook crew have had their normal access blocked by construction on the Heritage Farm expansion.  The old trail connecting the main gardens with the CWG winds through the Farm and the slow work on the upgrade to the entire area meant that our trail could not be used.  Fortunately, our Education Coordinator got the BioPark management to allow us to use the back service road and a temporary path to get to the CWG.  

Now, as the construction on the Heritage Farm is winding up (maybe by October?), they're getting around to restoring the CWG trails.  What little work has been done this summer damaged two of the plants we've been observing.  Not wanting to cause any more damage, I was asked to clearly mark the specimens with red construction tape.  

The small perennials like Penistemon, Ericameria, and Asclepias were marked with perimeter flags drapped with red tape. 

What's left of Penistemon ambigua

Larger shrubs were "gift wrapped" for high visibility.

The screwbean mesquite

Mature trees simply had their trunks wrapped. 

A Siberian elm

We're hoping that whoever resurfaces the CWG trail and clears the deadfall is paying a little attention to our bright red warning tape.  Time will tell if they ignore it and damage more of our specimens.  It's one thing to be "plant unaware" and another thing to just not care at all.