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Footsteps of the Ancients
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2016/03 - March
This is the first in a series of three articles saluting the botanical history of the Highlands Plateau, based upon research of the Laurel Garden Club’s Land Stewards and Ran Shaffner. Its accompanying video and pamphlet were winners of the North Carolina Society of Historians’ Paul Green Multimedia Award in 2015.
300 million years ago, continents collided…not a sudden smash-up, but a slow, glacial upheaval. Over the millennia, plants were wiped out as far south as Pennsylvania. The Southern Appalachians became their refuge. Plants from the north and the south collected here, those liking colder weather thriving in the higher elevations, those enjoying warmer climes doing well in valleys and thermal belts. This diversity of temperature and plant life is what makes the Plateau a gardener’s paradise in a land its inhabitants historically have sought to protect.
The first true land stewards were Native Americans, forefathers of the Cherokee. They arrived around 10,000 years ago. They inhabited what they called the Middle World, a flat disc suspended from the sky by four cords. Above them, in the Upper World, lived spirits who joined in preserving the natural balance. Below, in the Lower World, were spirits who sought to destroy it. Hanging by threads between moral and corrupt entities was incentive enough to keep everything in balance, literally, and symbolically. The result – Cherokee “lived lightly” on the land, observing eco-conscious practices like taking only one of every four plants, leaving three to propagate.
By the 1700s botanical explorers ventured into the Southern Appalachians, most notably, the Bartram clan. They were the first to document the area’s extraordinary botanical diversity. Others followed from Scotland and France. Harvard University’s Asa Gray was fascinated with the native plants and sent for samples to study. All these botanists were influential in naming, categorizing, determining medicinal applications (much of which came from the Cherokee), and gathering other information, which has become part of our gardening culture today.
See more botanical history at the Highlands Historical Society’s Museum. Or go to highlandshistory.com or email [email protected]. Visit the museum by appointment. It will reopen later in the spring.
