Radical Botany

The Radical Botany blog is a discussion and repository of articles on native plant wisdom. Most of the plants discussed are native to Cascadia- the bioregion stretching from from the area including British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, Northern California and parts of Idaho.

 It is my hope that the people of this planet will wake up and make changes to bring back the deep connection between humans and the web of life.  I am hoping that people will tear up the asphalt, turf, plastic and non-native plant life and replant paradise. We need to bring native plants back into all ecosystems. We need to encourage the re-colonization of pollinators and animal and plant species that have been lost because of degradation to the environment.  Without these helpful plants and animals, humans cannot survive.  Our water, air and earth will be lost to use.

The blog includes information on plant identification, ethnobotany, where to find the plants in our bioregion and how to bring these native plants back into our yard, cities, and rural and wilderness areas.

It is my hope that the people of this planet will wake up and make changes to bring back the deep connection between humans and the web of life.  I am hoping that people will tear up the asphalt, turf, plastic and non-native plant life and replant paradise. We need to bring native plants back into all ecosystems. We need to encourage the re-colonization of pollinators and animal and plant species that have been lost because of degradation of the environment.  Without these helpful plants and animals, humans cannot survive.  Our water, air and earth will be lost to use.

Many of the essays posted here appeared on the Portland Indymedia and the worldwide Indymedia websites from January 2008 until 2010.  They appeared as a free skillshare.  I believe that we must share what we know freely and allow discussion.  I support the Portland Free school and provide free classes through the school. I will continue to post my skillshares on the Portland Indymedia website as well.

If you are looking for a good teacher for learning about plants, look to the plants themselves. All knowledge that would lead us to live rightly on the Earth can be found with the plants. You only need to possess excellent powers of observation and do what the plants ask you to do. If you know and understand the plant teachers, you will never be hungry, unsheltered or unclothed. You will surely be a person who lives a prosperous, abundant life.

“The loss of connection to plants, to the land, to the Earth, leaves the connection to life with which we are naturally born unfilled. No matter how much Ritalin or Prozac is poured into those holes of disconnection, synthetic pharmaceuticals can never fill them; merely human approaches can never heal them. It is not only plants that are our teachers and healers; not only plants that are among our community of life; not only plants that have a language we have long known. It is the community of life that we are missing.”  Stephan Harrod Buhner – The Lost Language of Plants –http://www.gaianstudies.org/articles2.htm