Those of you who are familiar with my writing will know of my great admiration for a 19th-century naturalist named John Burroughs. Born in 1837, Burroughs lived in a time when the steam locomotive was still a new and wondrous thing in America. The telegraph was invented by Morse that same year and Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for a telephone was still about 40 years away. To say that Burroughs lived during a time that most of us would find difficult to imagine is a bit of an understatement.
However, those of us who love nature and wild things will find that his words resonate in us. Some truths are so basic that 150 years is but the blink of an eye. My most favorite Burroughs quote, and an idea that has guided me in my own search for solace in Nature, is as follows: “One has only to sit down in the woods or the fields, or by the shore of the river or the lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round to him, - the birds, the animals, the insects; and presently, after his eye has got accustomed to the place, and the light and the shade, he will probably see some plant or flower that he has sought in vain, and that is a pleasant surprise to him.”
This is the spirit that compelled me to install my Thinking Chair at the edge of my meadow and, I believe, it can be applied to a regular stroll along a regular route. Do the same thing day after day and you will eventually see something new and wonderful to behold. This is exactly what happened to me at the end of July. I took a walk that I’ve taken again and again for 19 years and as I rounded a familiar bend in a trail I saw something brand new.
To the south of my meadow, all the way into a mature forest of beech, maple, pine and hemlock, there is a path through the woods that is maintained by regular passage of ATVs and snowmobiles. As one might imagine, the ATVs can create mud holes here and there along a forest path, but it is just this sort of disturbance that appears to have been an absolute necessity for the growth of a new wildflower that I had never seen before; not just in my back woods, but anywhere ever.
The flower I am speaking of is called the Allegheny monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens). This is a species that thrives in wet and moist habitats, but because it can only grow to a maximum height of three feet it would have trouble finding a foothold in my meadow, where the grasses grow to seven feet tall. So, it was along the edge of a mud hole that was formed due to the disturbance caused by the passage ATVs, that I found this new plant.
From afar, the appearance of an individual plant would best be described as “spindly.” The slender stem has slender offshoots that support the leaves and flowers. The pale blue blossoms aren’t much to look at until you get up close, but then they are difficult to stop looking at. The general trumpet shape of each individual flower and the irregular “face” make it very similar to a flower of a snapdragon plant.
This species is a perennial, which means that it will grow in the same place year after year. The herbaceous stem, leaves and flowers may whither and die back in the winter, but the roots are hardy and the plant will reestablish itself the following spring. The fact that I have been walking this route for so long without seeing this species suggests a couple of possible explanations: Either the plant has only just arrived recently, or I have passed by this place at the wrong time of year to see the flowers. Take away the flowers and the plant itself is utterly unremarkable; completely invisible to the passing eye.
Because of its preference for wet habitats, the Allegheny monkeyflower has actually been used to stabilize soils in certain places. The fact that its seeds are commercially available highlights another important fact — just because something is new to me doesn’t mean that it is new to science. But I think that the opposite is even more important in our individual lives — just because something is already known to science doesn’t diminish the thrill of discovery for me (and you).
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Your Daily Puzzles
So I want you to mix things up this week. Try to establish a “regular route,” where you take a daily constitutional. Leave the cell phone and the earphones at home and allow yourself to walk directly into nature. Allow your mind to go quiet and encourage your eyes to look up, down and all around you as you walk. Once you stop thinking about this, that or the other, your mind will quiet down and your surroundings will start to come into the sort of clarity that accompanies the quiet mind. This will set the stage for your becoming familiar with the scenery and your ability to see new arrivals and notice the departures of familiar faces. Take the same walk every day and you are bound to notice something new and different each time.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 27 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more in formation visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.
