Let Plant Love Enrich Your Life

One of my earliest memories is our backyard bamboo thicket, guava trees, and maidenhair ferns poking out of the brick wall.

I remain a plant lover. I am 42 now.

When I came to the USA 13 years back, on the way from the Los Angeles airport, the lanky palms grabbed my attention.

Then I noticed Southern magnolia, sycamore, alder, and sweetgum. I made sure to identify and learn about most of them.

I continue to pay attention to and love plants. My quality of life is so much better for this flora love.

If you don’t appreciate them yet, start noticing the amazing flora diversity!

Most of you are likely to be coffee and chocolate lovers. They are plant products!

Without plants, we will not exist. So, show them the due respect. You will forget some of your problems, and your boredom will go away. It’s a great purpose to commune with nature and the plants. I do it everyday.

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.” — Herman Hesse

A lot of people prefer the luxury of Netflix or video games at home, rather than bothering to go outside.

But I go to nature, with dedication. I have many reasons, and one important is that I connect with plants. I recognize them. I know the plants by their common names, botanical names, and families. I’ve been a biology learner for 25 years, and being in nature feels like an ongoing field study. I also observe their relationships with other creatures and notice genetic variations.

For example, I know fountain bush, blooms abundantly in the summer months and sometimes, it shows a genetic change called fasciation.

When I notice these things, it gives me a dopamine kick, and pulls me back to nature, again and again. I have ample responsibilities, yet a formidable tranquility is there, thanks to the love for plants. Loving plants is a beautiful commune with nature.

I can confidently say that I could make a home in a foreign land because I forged friendship with the plants, early on.

Try it. Can you say, you know all the plants you come across in your daily life? If not, start recognizing them. If you have never learned biology, it will be quite a learning curve, but it will be worth it. In fact, you can tag me if you need help in identification.

I love plants and have published so many science articles on plants. In Medium, I created a publication ‘Phytophilia’. If did not get much traffic, so I started publishing in other publications, and got much success.

I think everybody should know the plants in their vicinity. We evolved with plants, and we should know them. It’s sad we only turn to them, when we need, food, timber, medicine, shade.

I live in Southern California, a region different than the one I grew up in. I am from India. But that’s not grounds to not know the plants here. In fact, the very first day in July 2011, when my spouse drove me from LA airport, I started my plant learning journey.

There are apps people use to identify plants. They don’t work for me. I have my own way. Longer, but fulfilling. Suppose in my neighborhood walk I see the below tree. It would enchant me. I would take a picture.

Then I would ask in Google, ‘Shrub, orange-colored ovoid fruits, South California’. I will go trough the Google Images, and it’s very likely that I will find the tree!

This way, I know 90% of plants in the heavy biodiversity region of Southern California. A great source of comfort and power to me.

It’s a joy to me when people ask me the identity of a plant, and I can tell them, ‘Oh, that’s a ‘sycamore’, ‘Pride of Madeira’, or ‘desert grapes.’ Shadowing me, my 5 and 3 year-old kids talk my language. ‘Crepe myrtle’, ‘magnolia’, ‘elephant food’, ‘boxwood’, 'trumpetbush', 'gardenia', and so many more.

We feel confidence to forage a variety of edible things. Example, below fruits are pineapple guava. A delicious fruit from Myrtaceae family.

Let your plant appreciation journey start today!