Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s previous World of Wonder columns can be found here.
In this edition of World of Wonder, the focus is on what you don’t really get to see of a very grouchy and grabby plant. The fleece flower is one of the world’s most invasive plants and it can grow and stretch to be almost thirteen feet tall in just over two months. In fact, real estate deals have gone sour at the last hour upon finding just a little slip of fleece flower too close to an otherwise primo piece of real estate. Fleece flower can spread around twenty-three feet on average in diameter, and you can imagine the havoc it wreaks on plumbing, cables, and foundations.
Just look at that fleece flower patch about to gobble up that sweet girl. Poor thing.
Also known as knotweed or monkeyweed, the most unique thing about Fallopia Japonica is the unusual shape of the rhizomes, which often resemble…a little furry person!
I’m thinking of something environmentalist Rachel Carson (one of my heroes!) wrote: “Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.” The thought of dozens of little chubby, cartoon-like figures hiding in the soil cracks me up to no end—and yes, in another week in which the news has me so weary and sad yet again at all the violence in the world, finding a little chuckle in nature can be most welcome.
And I don’t want to diminish the destructive effects that fleece flower can have on homes or businesses, or ignore the fact that some people do count on it and forage for it as a vegetable, and I don’t want to ignore the tiny delicate flowers it puts forth in later summer. Many of you have probably seen fleece flower without even realizing what lay beneath. It does appear in all but eleven states here in America, and is listed as a supremely invasive plant in the states of New York, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, among others—but there is something pretty delightful (or funny-creepy, depending how you look at it) that whole fields of little “root people” rest just underneath the soil, perhaps in places you drive or walk by every day.
It’s a mighty snow-filled winter where I write this now, but I for one cannot wait to get my hands in the earth again this summer: so many surprises in the soil, some secrets too delicious to keep us from smiling.
Tags: aimee nezhukumatathil, fleece flower, the butter, world of wonder
That picture is delightful! I also crack a little smile thinking of all the root-people under the earth. Perhaps this was JKR’s inspiration for the Mandrake in Harry Potter?
Mandrake roots (which are real!) resemble humans as well, but they are much smaller and creepier:
I did not even know they were real! They are definitely smaller and creepier… I think I prefer my humanoid root systems to be nearly life sized.
When I was little I thought this stuff was bamboo. Bamboo that grew behind my grandparents’ cottage. In Rhode Island.
okay so I was thinking “oh, ‘looks like a person,’ huh, probably means it has a double root kinda like legs or something.”
and then I clicked and
JESUS CHRIST D:
I’m entertained by the commentary under the linked picture. “The eerie-looking plant, measuring 62 centimetres tall, has clearly defined arms, legs, and head.” Are we just not gonna mention the…
I guess a wizard’s staff isn’t the only thing with a knob at the end of it…
No. No we are not.
… the Modesty Penguin?
That is almost exactly my thought processes too.
Clicking was a mistake. That root was creepier than a clown. 🙁
I like how the linked article mentions the arms, legs, and head, but delicately sidesteps the giant wang. I live in one of the 39 US states it can be found in and now wonder just how many wang-roots I have unknowingly driven past in my lifetime.
I think calling this insanely awful and invasive plant “Fleece Flower” is kind of the opposite of accurately conveying what a menace it is (not to mention HOLY CRIMINY THAT ROOT). How about something similar to “Screaming Buttweed” for Japanese Honeysuckle (http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/a-matter-of-names/)? “Souleating Creepweed”?
I’m an invasive plant biologist and I have never in my life heard it called fleece flower, only Japanese knotweed
…or a string of curse words depending on how bad the infestation is.
I too know it mostly as FUCKING KNOTWEED. A childhood duty was collecting every single fallen scrap of it for burning, lest the damn thing rise again. (It always did, but we slowed it down enough to get a few crops out of beds that would otherwise have been taken over before the next intense weeding session.)
I had never met this stuff until a few years ago, and after cutting and wrestling and digging and attempting to poison it just the sight of it infuriates me.
I love this series so much but I am totally creeped out by that root picture, and even more creeped out by the mandrake root picture! Remember that movie Pan’s Labyrinth?
I love this series so much but I am totally creeped out by that root picture, and even more creeped out by the mandrake root picture! Remember that movie Pan's Labyrinth?
Any thoughts on how to get rid of the stuff? I cut it back every year (I’ve heard disturbing the roots makes it spread), but no luck in really controlling it.
This was such a treat to read. 🙂