Life is a Greenbrier
May 17, 1997
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| Briers |
Walking through some of the heavier woods this morning, it occurred to me that a woods full of Greenbrier can be viewed as a metaphor for life. We have the option to tiptoe, walk, run or blunder our way through life. Assuming that some of our life-strategies have a genetic basis, I seem programmed to proceed closer to the blundering side of the continuum; whereas Pat is programmed on the tiptoe side. By combining our life-strategies, we come out somewhere in the middle of the continuum - not a bad balance. I urge Pat into places she would not dare go alone, and she holds me back from doing the really dangerous stuff. If we jointly do a little planning, we seem to avoid many of life’s nastier problems.
On my own this morning, after a jog in the country, I chose to walk home through the woods in my running shorts - not a really good idea. The thin skin on my freckled legs is not a very good defense against the greenbrier thorns. Blue jeans are much better. But, I was in no hurry so there should be no problem, right? By carefully lifting the brier vines, I could pass under or beside them with no injury to my bare legs or arms. But, one large brier vine slipped out of my hand and I felt the consequences on the other.
There comes a time - especially if we get in a hurry - when we all blunder into problems that could have been avoided. If I walk slowly through the woods, carefully choosing my route, I can generally avoid engagements with brier vines. If I learn to identify the various kinds of brier, my chances of being punctured on their sharp thorns are minimal. However, the thought of being chased through these woods in a panic - especially in the dark - seems almost to be suicidal. On the other hand, I have seen deer run at almost top speed through these woods and somehow avoid the brier. Come to think of it, maybe the brier has survival value for the deer. If deer - either genetically or behaviorally - “learn” to identify and avoid brier on the run, would this not give them an advantage for seeing and avoiding life-threatening barbed wire fences? Some briers have small stems that are difficult to see - these would be difficult to avoid when running. Also, they wind their way through the shrubbery so that when it appears safe to pass between 2 shrubs by simply pushing back the branches, you may find that a brier vine is growing inconspicuously between the shrubs - often at about face level. The sawbrier, for example, can inflict serious cuts if you run into it. It gives the appearance of being a possible replacement for a saw blade - it looks tough enough to cut wood. It seems to have invested lots of its energy into growing its heaviest and sharpest thorns on the lowest parts of the vine where mammals might try to feed on it. Thus, it might seem appropriate to visualize brier as a metaphor for all of life’s complications, including disease, famine, pestilence, poverty, ignorance, and others.
However, wait a minute, surely we have taken a superficial view of brier. Maybe it is more than simply a metaphor for life’s complications, maybe it is a metaphor for all of life. After all, it is only a plant that is trying to make a living like everybody else. It is not really an evil plant, is it? It does not use its spines in an aggressive manner, to master and bully other forms of life. It uses them only in self-defense. It is only an illusion that it reaches out to attack as you pass - isn’t it? One of its ancestors probably had no spines and was just a wimpy little plant that all the other plants and animals kicked around. Then, for some reason, one weird plant grew a few spines which gave it an advantage of fending off attacks by hungry dinosaurs, bison, deer, elk, cattle, and other large, hungry, plant-eating animals. Its offspring inherited these spines and maybe added a few of their own, so now there is this “macho plant” that can “kick butt.” It worked very hard to fend off predators and grow up to the top of the trees to reach enough sunshine to manufacture energy. Then it had to decide how to distribute this energy - for making babies, growing up, or fighting off the bullies of the plant world. If it placed too much energy into growing both thorns and bitter or toxic chemicals, there might not be enough energy for reproduction and growth. Sawbrier apparently made a sort of evolutionary decision to invest very heavily in thorns.
But, large mammals are not the only predators of brier. As I followed the growth of one brier winding its way up the trunk of a winged elm, I noticed that it was growing at the rate of about 2-3 inches every day. Suddenly its growth stopped! A close inspection revealed a black larva with white stripes was feeding on the terminal bud. Aha! A brier which has great defenses against large mammals seems to be very vulnerable to an insect. Especially, since the brier seems to have few chemical defenses against insects. The more I learn about brier, the greater appreciation I have for them. Instead of seeing the brier as a wicked vine, bent on slashing my flesh, I see it as just another part of this marvelous, wild system. Now, I would no more wish to eradicate brier than I would wish to destroy the sun because it causes sunburn.
Then I find out that some briers have relatively few spines. Laurel greenbrier, for example, has a few spines on stems that can be reached by a deer - then they climb up 40 to 60 feet into tall trees to reach sunlight. The bottom 6 ft of stem has spines and the top 50 ft have none. When installing electricity into Woodvine, I was forced to cut of few of these briers to make way for the electric lines. They are now in the process of growing back from the roots. They emerge as a vine about ½ inch in diameter, grow rapidly, and within a few days are 5 ft tall and already have spines. At first, they provide an apparent but deceptive defense - the spines have a ferocious appearance but are about as dangerous as a child’s rubber doll. Browsing mammals who are not deceived by appearance should make a tasty meal of these plants. Thus, it seems that brier spines can provide a real, physical defense or a sort of psychological defense. Animals who know the pain of hard spines might also avoid a soft, rubbery, plant that appears dangerous. However, some insects that find it difficult to get a mouthful of the stem, are - with their small mouths - able to graze on the soft spines, thus making the vine more susceptible to large herbivores.
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| Briers Grow Rapidly |
But, after all this nature stuff - in some sort of convoluted, illogical way - by genetically controlled, biological imperatives, I instinctively take some primitive pleasure in finding out that I can eat my good friend brier. Apparently brier has evolved no chemical defenses against human digestive systems - it tastes somewhat like asparagus. As with other humans throughout history, I take some neanderthal pleasure in feeling dominant over brier - somewhat akin to Aztec Indians eating the hearts of their human sacrifices. Anybody for heart of brier salad or brier stew?
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