Joann Merritt's Essays

Conversing With Plants
September, 1991

The authors of Wildflowers of The Llano Estacado state “flowers are a plant’s way of saying Hi!” If plants had the ability to speak, here are some conversations that would have taken place during the past few weeks.

Conversation #1

Hi, I’m Neptunia Lutea

Hello, we’re Don and Joann Merritt. We’re so glad to know your name because we’re here at I-20 Pond identifying native plants. Do you live here?

No, this is my first visit, but other members of my family, the Sensitive Briars, live here. They have prickly spines that stick your fingers, but my spines are soft so you needn’t be afraid to touch me. My sensitive leaves will fold when touched, at night and also during cloudy weather. I’m a small plant with yellow oblong clusters of tiny flowers and my seed pods form in clusters also. My branches grow to six feet long and my leaves are two shades of green, the inner part being lighter than the outer edge. I’ve been told that I’m beautiful and would make an excellent ground cover. I’d like it if you would call me Yellow Puff instead of Neptunia Lutea.

We hope you will find the right conditions here and will become a permanent resident of Midland County.

Conversation #2:

Hi, my name is Pond Weed and although I’m not beautiful like Yellow Puff people do take notice of me. Pond Weeds are the largest family of truly aquatic seed plants. Several kinds of ducks feed on Pond Weeds and my dense underwater growth provides cover for fish, snail and other animals, which should make naturalists happy.

Yes, Don and I are members of the Midland Naturalists and we welcome you to Midland County. There’s enough room here in I-20 Pond for both you and the Arrowhead Plant who has bloomed profusely in previous rainy years, so we hope you’ll share this habitat. Burr and Ernie will be coming to visit you and they will no doubt find more newcomers to this place.

I’ll be glad to see them. Tell them my small spikes of flowers can’t be seen until they look closely, but my brownish leaves floating in the water are clearly visible.

Conversation #3

Don’t touch me, don’t touch me!! Hi, I don’t intend to be unfriendly but if you touch me you’ll get Noseburn. You see, that’s my name, Branching Noseburn, or Tragia Ramosa if you speak Latin. Some people are very sensitive to the volatile substance in my stinging hairs, red spots may appear where the hairs penetrate the skin and cause itching that may last for several hours.

Thank you for the warning and we’re so happy to meet you. This is quite a coincidence as we were reading about you in Butterflies of North America. An Amymone is an unusual butterfly for our area and we noticed that it is also called Noseburn Wanderer. You can imagine how puzzled we were about that name until we found out that the host plant of Amymone is Tragia, or Noseburn, and that the Amymone emigrates north in the fall, hence the name Noseburn Wanderer. We’ll be friends even though we can’t shake hands (or rub noses) with you. We welcome you to Midland County and hope you will welcome the Amymone Butterfly when it visits your foliage.