Vegetal and Some Other Creatures

[Len] I see a dormant edible landscape: hidden nasturtium, Moroccan mint, wild sage, laurel which certainly benefits the snails more than the residents.
Plants that I am discovering, that I would like to cultivate like this delicious large green leaf scalis.

[Se] Figs are not ripe but already delicious – we tested with Kim !

[Va] The second – and last – plant of the garden that I have chosen for wandering is the one that gives its name to my hometown, Figueres, in Catalonia. In the garden of the Malina house, the fig tree is big, stately, almost spectacular as part of the place where it grows. All in all, the fig tree is resilient: I have even seen as epiphytes, growing on a palm tree –Phoenix canariensis-! The wood of the fig tree is not very resistant, it does not burn well, it is little appreciated. In contrast, the latex of this plant has medicinal properties, it solves warts, for example.

And we come to the fruit, in fact to the set of fruits grouped in an infructescence, the fig, technically called syconium. Who has never tasted a fig ?!
Going back to toponymy – and anthroponymy – which has been prolific with the fig tree, in my language, Catalan, ‘figa’ and ‘figuera’ have given rise to numerous place and person names. As I said, among them is the name of my city. On the coat of arms and flag of Figueres, we have two showy leaves of our symbol tree, and a poet from Figueres, Carles Fages de Climent (Figueres, 1902-1968), recommended to the local rulers « Mayors, do plant fig trees in the heart of the city » and, in the same poem, which is a model of integration of botany (and traditional knowledge about biodiversity) and literature, addresses the tree saying “To you, our tree, which name envelops the city itself, which delights shade”.
I conclude, then, by greeting the fig tree in the garden of the Malina house – and with it all the fig trees.

Cartographying
Trapping the garden with the growing plants and sliding snails.
Not a question of identification counting present species but catching presences.
Asking plants for a trace, their traces, their ghost on the paper.
Growing together an animated herbarium, a living herbarium.
Beyond the oxymoron, with the least human intervention as possible, gathering vegetal presence, creating a sort of surfaces of presence for the vegetal beings.

What will you see on the images?
The garden through vegetal movements and dynamics, stems, branches, leaves exposed on the surface.
This mapping invites to think the garden from the outer surface of the plant to the inner surface of the paper, thinking by surface, thinking from-with the surface, from the exposure of the plant to its milieu of life, to the exposures which will reveal their presence.

Thinking from the surface, only the surface
Beings exposed to the environments.
Beings exposed to our environments
from breathing to breathing
sharing the world.

[Va] In the garden of the Malina house, the yew has a situation of resistance, totally suitable for the Roots & Seeds project. In fact, the yews of the house are not, as they often are in nature and in other gardens, majestic trees, but sprouts, probably from some previous large tree. However, they do not lose their visibility, presence and relevance.I would like to point out a botanical aspect of this plant, which shows that even scientific terminology is sometimes inaccurate, alas! Yew has male and female individuals, as is common in animals, but not so much in plants. The females fructify and, in this case, do not make a cone like many of the yew’s close relatives (gymnosperms), but a seed (Roots & Seeds) surrounded by a fleshy, juicy red structure (the aril). Gymnosperms have not the seed closed inside a fruit (as is the case with a peach –Prunus persica-, for example) and therefore (which is already indicated in the word ‘gymnosperm’, which means bare seed ), do not have proper fruit, but fructification. However, the scientific name ot the yew includes the epithet baccata, which means ‘with berry’, and berry is a type of fruit (such as grape –Vitis vinifera– or tomato –Solanum lycopersicum-). This shows us that science is not as accurate, precise, and rational as it may seem. This is a small flaw, an anecdote, but I found it interesting to point it out.

Finally, I want to highlight the relationship between yew and people.
Human societies that have been in contact with yew have come to know it deeply. They have observed that it is a highly toxic plant, but that birds eat its fructification and then defecate it – and scatter its seeds. With this, humans have discovered the food potential of yew arils, while respecting the seeds, which are as toxic as the leaves. Yew wood has also been used. And relatively recently, anti-cancer potential has been found in the bark. In addition, it has generated toponyms in different languages (the Font del Teix in Catalan or the literary Château d’If in French, for example).
In short, the encounter between yews and people has generated an important corpus of knowledge.

[Mi]
The wind composing sounds
through the shapes of leaves
through the movements of grasses
tiny garden on a decomposing leaf

The Sounds of the garden
the SSSHHSSSSH
of the leaves
every tree
having a distinct
SSHSSHHH