Expedition to the Edges - Page 2/4
Building colors in earth hues contrast
with deeply pigmented shades that we recognize from wild morning glories or
on a flowering shrub we had seen on a mountain. Living in such visual harmony
with the natural world is of course often explained by economic constraints;
if it is true that wealth and industry and high populations bring careless
growth and a commercially determined aesthetic, then sad lessons are to be
learned. Spanish moss clinging to the power lines will not be tolerated in
most cities, and a hand-painted sign, number, or name on a door may take too
much valuable time, when a lit billboard could bring so many more customers.
For now, we can only be entranced by the elegant juxtaposition of colors on
two adjacent walls, and be moved by the visual surprise of finding hand-carved
crosses in the village cemetery.
Colors like this green paint have provided inspiration at Peckerwood Garden. At right, hand carved crosses in cemetery near the town of Miquihuana.
We drive for many miles seeing little other road traffic, telephone lines, or city limits. Farmers here may be organized into ejidos (farming co-ops) which give a sense of community as well as economic solidarity to widely distanced neighbors. The intense physicality of this space is felt even at 100 kilometers per hour.
The dioon hill, all shale and thorny scrub acacia, rises above cultivated corn fields and a winding path of a country road. We see the fluttering fronds of these great and ancient plants, Dioon edulae var. angustifolia, as we approach, smoothly dark on top, light grey-green on the underside, alive in the breeze. As we drag our heavy cameras up the hills, we see that cattle have also climbed here, grazing on the hill. The dioon are fewer than when we last visited. We fear for the future of this plant, seeing only a few regenerating plants.
We find it impossible to care where this unpaved road might lead, as it crosses back and forth a green and rushing creek, because every few feet we see new color of morning glory or some rare plant demanding a photograph and John's explanation of its growing habit. We stop to photograph a pale sycamore, Plantanus mexicana, and are hypnotized by eddying green water, the occasional bird call, all else silent.
This colony of Dioon is growing in decomposing shale, though the plant is found in other soils.
Amoreuxia wrightii. Amazingly drought-tolerant, growing from central Texas to Mexico. Flowers are persistent from early summer to fall.
 |
 
Copyright 2008 Peckerwood Garden |
