"We must therefore firmly insist that in the organic natural sciences, and thus also in botany, absolutely nothing has yet been explained and the entire field is still open to investigation as long as we have not succeeded in reducing the phenomena to physical and chemical laws." Jacob Mathias Schlelden

I want to warn the reader – but I’m not sure of what. The most probable reason is that this post is not likely to be of general interest. I’m going to rant against a branch of science and I may get a bit pedantic. So take heed of….something. This is my second back porch, container garden posting. (See last posting about radishes.)

Some plants grow in New Mexico that don’t grow in South Carolina and vice versa. Some plants grow in both places. Surprising to me, prickly pear cactus, the genus Opuntia, grows well in both places. I always pictured it as a desert plant. Same for yucca. I have a couple of yucca plants in my landscape that give beautiful blooms. In my walks in the woods I frequently see native examples.

A plant that grows readily in NM but not in SC is the piñon ( Pinus edulis) tree. I asked some botanist friends, why does it grow in one place and not the other? They offer all sorts of theories – different humidity, different altitude, different fungi in the soil. etc., etc. Then I ask, “Have you tested this theory?” The answer is always, “No.” Science is subject to experimental test. In botany one can use a “green house” to duplicate ‘any’ environmental condition. If humidity is the problem, prove it by planting some seeds in a green house with low humidity and see if they grow. It’s not rocket science. But they haven’t done that. I currently have a 7 inch piñon tree growing in a container on my back porch – so I don’t think humidity is the culprit and I’m only a physicist. I’ve tried planting the saplings in the ground and they die. Different fungi? I don’t know, but it’s easy to sterilize soil in a green house to find out. Botanists should know the answer to this question.

When one of the primary concerns of the world is surviving a global climate change, I would guess that any fundamental botanical research to investigate how plants behave in different environments would receive funding – or should.

Botanists, wake up! Get the money, - do the research, - save the world. Why does my piñon die in the ground in SC and not in NM?

2014 Lester C. Welch