|
Resurrection Plants
By Melanie Devore
At any given moment of time there probably exists a student completing an assigned commentary on the deep symbolism of Pitty Sing, the cat in O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” A cat simply can't just be a cat in this short story. It was placed in the writer's created universe to serve a purpose. The best writers never tip their hand and come right out and tell us what they meant. Instead, they leave countless students in literature classes re-reading, guessing, and writing about what authors "really meant" when they crafted their tales.
Some readers immediately think the cat met its demise after being hurled against a pine tree, only to be resurrected at the very end of the story to comfort The Misfit. After all, The Misfit tosses a theological spiel at the grating Grandmother regarding how Jesus threw everything off balance by raising the dead. What student wouldn't be compelled to compose an essay connecting Pitty Sing with the resurrection of life?
I'm willing to bet that a plant ecologist would suggest that the cat was knocked out or simply scurried away for awhile after being flung against the tree. From the perspective of an ecologist, you either tolerate an environmental stress or avoid it. One of the most innovative means plants have of avoiding extreme water stress is the resurrection habit. In the plant kingdom, resurrection is all about throwing everything back into balance after emerging from a dry state. In a few hours after a soaking rain, the plant reorganizes itself back to normal. Chlorophyll is rebuilt and the plant regains its green color. All the biochemical processes pick up again. Cells and their tiny working parts are all adjusted and reanimated so the plant can photosynthesize and fully function again.
The masters of the resurrection habit are ferns and other plants that reproduce by spores. One of the best known of these, which bears the common name "Resurrection Plant,” is a species of spike moss, Selaginella lepidophylla, found in the Chihuahuan desert. In its dormant state, the stems of the Resurrection Plant are tightly curled to form a ball. When fully hydrated, the Resurrection Plant uncoils its stems. It only takes a few moments for the plant to start to rehydrate, and within twenty-four hours, the Resurrection Plant is fully reimbibed. Resurrection Plants also stagger back to life when soaked in beer. While completing a geological mapping exercise in Mexico, our field team decided to soak several Resurrection Plants in a Frisbee full of beer. To our delight, we were greeted the following morning to fully hydrated and quite content plants.
You too can experiment with your very own Resurrection Plant. Currently the plants are sold for around twenty dollars under the trade name "Amazing Dinosaur Plant.” We are talking the ideal plant for those of us in the population who lack a green thumb. All you have to do is remember to water a Resurrection Plant at least once every fifty years. But, if you want to see a Georgia resurrection plant, and get more for your money, go to Andalusia and drop that twenty dollar bill in the donation box (optional, of course, but strongly encouraged). Then, as you leave, carefully look on the limbs of the stately oaks stationed on the lawn.
Occupying a limb of a tree presents plants with a challenge when it comes to getting enough water. Epiphytes, a name given to plants growing on trees, do not always have the option of sinking their roots deep into ground to absorb water. The Resurrection Fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides) particularly likes to produce patches of flowing fronds, or leaves, draping the branches of oaks, elms, and magnolias. Catching a glimpse of the Resurrection Fern at Andalusia can be a challenge during dry spells since the fronds are brown and tightly curled. A lush, green mat of fronds will greet you if your visit falls after a welcomed wave of wet weather. Examination of new growth reveals an unusual feature of fern fronds that is blessed with a name linking it with the Catholic Church.
Fern fronds do not appear in the same way as most other plants. Instead, they enter the world as tightly coiled structures called fiddleheads, or crosiers. The crosiers unfold into the elegant, leaves we admire in ferns. After all, Thoreau informed us, "Nature made a fern for pure leaves." But the crosiers remind us that a bishop serves as the "shepherd of the flock of God" and the Catholic Church is found where the bishop presides. Where there is the Catholic Church, there is the spiritual practice of the Eucharist.
Ignatius Antioch, before becoming a martyr around AD 107, referred to the Eucharist as "the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death.” The Grandmother in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" certainly had no antidote against death. Pitty Sing, the cat, may have had nine lives. In the botanical realm, some ferns living in misfit places have found an antidote from the imbalances of "rising from the dead" and resurrect anew after a cleansing rain.
|
