Double~take | plants 101

The wild stuff of fairy tales

L

ast year I helped out with a March Break camp, and for some unknown reason got put in charge of the nature activities (I knew squirrels and raccoons and not much else). Mostly the kids were satisfied with smores and a campfire, and the occasional snowball-throwing contest; but I was greatly amused by the feedback from one of the more enthusiastic kids:

“It was fun, but we didn’t really learn much nature stuff in nature…”

To which I remarked when we later read them: “That’s what you get for putting an Australian in charge of the Canadian nature section….”

Funny, because had I been in Australia, I would have had no worries in pointing out almost any plant, animal, insect or bird that I saw; along with if it was native, what its’ habitat was, and if it was rare, common or somewhere in between. I would also be able to orient myself without a compass - where are the mountains? The ocean? The sun? The stars? I could judge weather based on the trees, birds, wind and cloud formations - even after nearly failing “proper” weather forecasting in geography.

So I walk out to help supervise the Outdoor Living section at camp this summer, and realise again how far I am from what is familiar. Moss apparently grows on the north side of trees. I learned about three kinds of maple trees; pine, spruces, beeches, birches and cedars (for me, they are things from fairy tales!). Coniferous is synonymous with evergreen - because conifers are the only evergreens here really… and there are no eucalypts…

I don’t know how I got such a rural worldview, considering my solid suburban upbringing, but I end up thinking of the native peoples of both Canada and Australia; and the importance their lands hold for them. Maybe they weren’t just imagining things to include in their respective native beliefs; and just maybe having the same fast food restaurants on two sides of the Pacific is not sufficient to ensure a global culture, regardless of any increases in urbanisation. No matter what MTV pumps out, Australia is still a desert nation in the south, and Canada is cold, northern and temperate - there’s hope for diversity yet.

Double~take appears every Saturday on theRubicon. Find past Double~take posts and a bio of Stephanie Hung here.

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