Thursday, January 31, 2019

My Year of Orchids: Bootstrapping knowledge

My greatest botany professor, Dr. Harry Thiers, used to tell us at the end of lab, “When you are satisfied with your state of knowledge you may leave.” It was kind of an invitation to pack up but it was also a gentle barb. Is a true learner ever satisfied with his or her state of knowledge? There’s always so much deeper you can go. So many questions you can ask. So many ways to explore. This is especially true I think in the world of plants.

I took Dr. Thiers’ advice and kept looking. Long after lab was over. I had to. I barely understood what was in front of me. Living things are a mystery. And lichens, the organisms I decided to study under his guidance, are especially so. Their mysterious presence, their shape, their life habits, their aroma. All of these aspects were, to me, stunning and strange.

It didn’t take long to realize I wouldn’t be able to find much written material about the questions that really bothered me. How do lichens grow? How do they experience their environment? What makes them the way they are? There were standard answers out there, more definitional than dynamic. So I accepted the definitions more or less, and introduced the dynamic aspects myself. I had to light my own fire. Everything I wanted to learn I had to learn on my own. Through experience.

Fast forward a good thirty years, slightly more. I’m not yet the age of Dr. Thiers when I was his graduate student but almost. Instead of the amazing lichens I’m playing with orchids. They are no prettier than the lichens I worked with but they are a lot more responsive. Even if you observe them every day several times a day you can detect changes. You see a root extend and grab onto a branch. You see a bud enlarge. You watch as the plant changes color or curves in response to weather, nutrients, or preparation for reproduction.

But the state of our knowledge is way incomplete. I’ve gotten plenty of advice about how to fertilize and with what. I’ve read all about potting mediums, how and when to repot. It’s easy to find nomenclature and taxonomies prepared for regular people, not scholars. But the questions I asked about lichens still bother me.

How do orchids grow? How do they experience their environment? What makes them the way they are? These questions I think need exploration at a deeper level than you can find in the common literature. My hope is that they will lead to further discoveries and open the door to a more thorough understanding of the nature of orchids.

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