{"id":1396,"date":"2026-07-03T20:30:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/?page_id=1396"},"modified":"2026-07-03T20:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:30:32","slug":"demons-in-eden","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/?page_id=1396","title":{"rendered":"Demons in Eden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Demons in Eden: the Paradox of Plant Diversity<\/em> by Jonathan Silverton was published in 2005. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, our discussion turned to plant identification and distinguishing between endangered plants and their look-alike demons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Native Plant Society of NM has a thistle identification handbook<\/a> available for free download, thistles being a native plant with some look-alike demon invaders. The USDA\/Forest Service has a 16-page pamphlet<\/a> for managing invasive thistles in the southwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, in finding those links, I was reminded of the many resources availble from NMSU. I found a 2010 handbook of weeds (105 pages so you know they’re serious about this!). I try to put up reminders that links change and that has happened with this publication. The new link is here<\/a> and the new booklet, Noxious and Troublesome Weeds of New Mexico<\/em> was revised in 2021 when it was updated to include 154 pages.
Also, on the NMSU CES publications page<\/a>, you can download Kelly Allred’s 395-page Field Guide to the Grasses of New Mexico<\/em>, among other treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A resource for everything about rare plants in New Mexico may be found here<\/a>. There’s a lot going on with rare plants these days (2026) with rare plants so this is a great place to learn more. And one last place to identify plants is here<\/a>. I liked this one because it had photographs that I found helpful of all the different thistles – the native and the noxious!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One other idea was to contact Marisa Thompson through her desertblooms blog (https:\/\/desertblooms.nmsu.edu\/), which has lots of interesting articles. And although I’m a facebook and twitter wimp, you can get to them from the web page: https:\/\/desertblooms.nmsu.edu\/. And, once again, thank you to Marisa for providing us with the link so zoom doesn’t cut us off cold at 40 minutes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wherever you are in the state, or any state in the US, you can contact the county extension agent, who can help you identify plants, figure out what ails them, and learn whether the critter munching on their leaves deserves some free space or a quick squish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who are too impatient to go to the extension office or who just want to learn more, there are some increasingly accurate apps you can put on your phone or ipad and get an instant identification, probably with as much information as anyone could read while hiking\u2026 Two were mentioned while we were talking: iNaturalist and LeafSnap. I found a link<\/a> for the “10 best free plant identification apps for iOS & Android (2023)” which includes those two with links for the downloads for all ten. (FWIW, this link was still the same as when I first found it in 2021 BUT has been updated since then.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve forgotten now how it came up but someone mentioned salvage ethnography. It wasn’t a term I knew but I immediately recognized it when I was told – an idea in the late 1800s and early 1900s that one must interview (e.g., Franz Boas) and photograph (e.g., Edward Curtis) cultures that were doomed to death\/extinction. Salvage ethnography is, I think, pretty much a pejorative term today. Wikipedia<\/a> has some interesting links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, on to the book and the material I had prepared ahead of time! I always like to include something that has the author speaking in a video. Silvertown is quite a prolific writer and speaker. His website<\/a> includes links to many of his research publications as well as citizen science projects he has been involved with or written about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We watched a 3 min 51 sec video of the (hi)story of bread<\/a>.
There’s a part two<\/a> (of course).
I’ve added one of his Open University classes from 1984 on desert ecology<\/a>. This 24-min video is very informative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a plant demon? An over-exuberant puppy that destroys everything in its jealous demand for your love? A machiavellian individual who values expediency more than morality in a perceived fight for dominance and survival?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wherever along the spectrum you define a plant demon, there are a number of characteristics of a demonic plant: vigorous exponential growth, precocity, prodigious fecundity, and excellent seed dispersal. As if that isn’t enough, some plants have allelopathic capabilities that further ensure they will hold their territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a “tool box” like that, how ever can you explain diversity? Demons in Eden<\/em> addresses the myriad ways that an assortment of natural checks and balances ensure plant diversity. Silvertown also suggests that that balance is precarious and that we, as humans, with an undeniably heavy hand on the balance, must be continually watchful that the balance doesn’t tip to a point that we jeopardize the plant kingdom’s diversity and so jeopardize our own existence as a species on the tree of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book opens with scenes of Kew Gardens, a familiar place to those who read The Plant Messiah<\/em> last month. Since we just watched a handful of video clips about Kew, I didn’t show any at our discussion but here’s the link to the Gardens<\/a> for those who would like to wander virtually in them and\/or learn more about some of the many scientific projects in which Kew researchers are engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book revolves largely around Darwin’s reasonable question – how can there be diversity if it’s a plant-eat-plant world? Beyond that question, Darwin was very interested in plants and produced a number of articles and books on them. Many, if not all, of his works are available for free reading and some form of download from the Gutenberg project<\/a>. In looking for that link, I came across an article<\/a> which suggests that the questions Darwin raised in the 19th century continue to generate research projects today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any study of plant evolution over time must refer to the tree of life. The website of preference is the Tree of Life Web Project, where, if you’re like me, you can spend many hours\u2026Alas, the project is now retired, along with its principle author. Read more here<\/a>.
The tree of life itself seems to becoming increasingly beautiful over time to me. Here’s one relatively recent version<\/a> of it. And another<\/a> from more or less the same time.
We watched the 4-min 38-sec explanation of creating phylogenetic trees (tree of life) from this link<\/a>.
If you look at the sidebar for the youtube page, you’ll see that there are many videos on this topic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One interesting case of diversity comes from islands, which might be expected to have little diversity but instead tend to be diversity hot spots. Adaptive radiation is one process that can be used to explain it. I had hoped to find something interesting on the internet but the closest I could come was an article about a weevil but the article<\/a> includes a good map of the Canary Islands with the hypthesized radiation\/colonization path of the weevil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Silvertown suggests there is a marketed Fir Wave game, I couldn’t find one. And no videos – I suppose the process is too slow even for time lapse! But here is a diagram<\/a> of how the process looks.
And here is a photograph<\/a> of the Japanese fir wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Barro Colorado Island work has produced an amazing amount of data and opportunities for research about tropical forests. It is managed by the Smithsonian; we watched the first three minutes of an 8-minute “official” video<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rothamsted Manor Park Grass experiment is another well-documented study that has also generated lots of information on plant diversity and the factors that control the growth of demons. We watched this 4-minute 20-second video<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plant hybrids were an important topic in the book and related to a discussion of genetic modification. For those who would like a simple starting point to brush up on their understanding of this important topic, I found this one<\/a> helpful. I am sure that there are about a billion more sites as well as tons of scientific papers and books. If you have a favorite reference, let me know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new word for me was aerenchyma. In looking for something to explain this in an interesting way, I found this engaging video on mangrove trees, which also describes the problems the plant has with salt. We watched from about 2 to 3 minutes. The 8-minute 38-second video<\/a> has lots of interesting botanical information: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, if you didn’t have enough to do already, here’s a really cool link to the website for Hillary Waters Fayle<\/a>, an artist who embroiders on leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Demons in Eden: the Paradox of Plant Diversity by Jonathan Silverton was published in 2005. Not surprisingly, our discussion turned to plant identification and distinguishing between endangered plants and their look-alike demons. The Native Plant Society of NM has a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":835,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1396","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1396\/revisions\/1398"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.margaretmenache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}