A mere two and a half years and a once shrub-covered plot becomes the tapestry of photosynthesis. These broom sedge (Andropogan glomeratus) florescence have come to make a statement, saying something about the tenacity of life and the principles of restoration. This meadow, named after the man who cleared it first, who had the vision, and who left behind a pile of woven branches so that we will always remember, is a tribute to to the beauty of wildness and the power of imagination. That lengthening May day back in 2007, the ignorance of how much we had left to do, and the aching muscles burning from the energy of pepper fiber and sandy earth.
They were violent days at first, chopping and cutting and digging and pulling. The fire ants, you remember, taking advantage of the niche we had opened and feasting one too many times on the flesh of our own legs and backs and hands. Then came the swamp flatsedge (Cyperus ligularis) and dog fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium) to populate the newly opened space. Dayflowers (Commelina diffusa) and capeweed (Phyla nodiflora) did their part as well. The broom sedge is a latecomer, but a welcome one. Today in the sparkle of late fall sunshine the season of Florida spring peaked. Everywhere flowers began turning to seed and pollinators rushed to get their work complete before the cooling air would render them sluggish and weak. We are often discouraged on this blazing heap of sand, numbed by oppressive sunshine and too much history. Two paces of life fill this over-sized village of ours. One has been dominant for some time now. A pace of regimentation, coordination, and efficiency. A pace that squeezes the last dollar out of the last second of every day, hedging bets on tomorrow and arranging an entire human habitat to serve these future needs. It is like the stand of Brazilian Pepper that once dominated this spot, so greedy for sunshine and so quick to adapt to every advantage that the result is a decline of diversity, a monocrop, monotheism, a spot of monopoly, a singular piece of land dedicated to the support of a single species of plant from which we derive few benefits. The problem of pepper as the problem of the large corporation is exactly the same: it is a problem of justice and equity. There is no question of might and ability, but action done against society without consent, as we well know, is just not acceptable.
That other pace of life, the other one you know - the one that stalls you on your way to work to steal another glance at a rising sun, or pulls you from your desk to propel you into places that stimulate your thoughts and stir your mind. That other pace is here, too. And rising, like these broom sedge florescence, to delight the palette of today.
