VISITING ONE OF THE OLDEST OLIVE TREES IN THE WORLD
This summer, I spent a few glorious weeks vacationing in Dalmatia, an ancient region located along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, primarily within modern-day Croatia. Renowned for its centuries-old architecture and stunning coastal landscapes, where limestone mountains cloaked in pine and oak forests rise from crystal-clear waters, Dalmatia is a truly remarkable place to explore and immerse oneself in both nature and history.
While on Hvar Island, famous for its lavender fields, vibrant nightlife, and numerous beaches and coves, I discovered that a 2,500-year-old olive tree (Olea europaea) was just a short 25-minute drive from our hotel. Fascinated by its incredible age and history, I said to Rick, “We have to see this tree!” I later discovered that olive cultivation has been a cornerstone of Dalmatian agriculture for over 2,000 years. The region’s limestone-rich soil and hilly coastal terrain, particularly on the islands, provide perfect conditions for olive groves to flourish.
SOUTHEASTERN
GRASSLANDS
I visited the 36th biodiversity hotspot on our planet, the North American Coastal Plain in the Southeastern United States. Designated in 2016, this region earned its status due to the high percentage of endemic plant species and the severe threats to its ecosystems. In other words, the flora here is unique and irreplaceable, demanding urgent conservation efforts.
One of the most memorable parts of the visit was meeting Dwayne Estes, a passionate advocate for grasslands preservation, affectionately known as the Prairie Preacher. Dwayne is a botanist, professor of biology, and curator of the herbarium at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. He also serves as the executive director of the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative, which he co-founded in 2017.
PART ONE
It’s not a plum. It’s not an apricot. It’s an ume!
In central Japan, the earth sings ume. You might have heard about this fruit before. People mistakenly call it the Japanese plum, even though it’s more closely related to an apricot. However, ume is neither plum nor an apricot. It's a unique fruit! An ume is an ume!
These electric green to ruby red stone fruits are too sour and astringent to eat raw. So instead, people salt and pickle them into the famous umeboshi, preserve them in vinegar, infuse them into liquor, or boil their juice down into the highly medicinal concentrate known as Bainiku Ekisu.
I dedicate this two-part blog series to the ume fruit. I was captivated by its history, culinary applications, and medicinal value while traveling through Japan in 2019.
FRUIT, HERB,FUNGI,AND
INSECT DRINKS
FROM JAPAN
In a remote village located on the border of Wakayama and Nara prefectures lives Hiroto Tanaka-san, a man who is single-handedly responsible for cataloging and reviving the area's unique food and drink history before it is lost forever.
In the spring of 2019, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with Hiroto. Walking into his house was like entering a wizard's laboratory. To get from the front door to the living room, you had to walk through a labyrinth created from piles of plant matter drying on newspapers that covered the floor. His kitchen countertops were overflowing with plastic bags of numerous varieties of freshly picked citrus fruits. A reishi mushroom that he collected from the nearby forest sprouted from a yogurt container sitting on his coffee table. Shelves lined his living room walls filled with jars of liquor, each infused with different admixtures of fruits, herbs, fungi, and insects.
ALL ABOUT UME:
PART TWO
It was a warm February afternoon when I arrived at Japan's ume hotspot. A place where thousands of smallholder farmers from two towns, Minabe and Tanabe, collectively cultivate over 50% of the country’s total ume harvest.
I could tell we were getting close. The delicate fragrance of ume blossoms scented the crisp spring air. Finally, out of the passenger's side window, I saw how time and human hands had woven together pink orchards, green forests, and rice terraces and strewn them across the rocky vertical landscape.
I was somewhere not only beautiful but brimming with potent lessons. Here, people have been shaping ecosystems for centuries to proliferate biodiversity while creating meaningful livelihoods and cultural heritage.
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES:
AN OVERVIEW
Earth’s ecosystems provide everything that is necessary for humans to survive—clean air, water, food, and medicine. However, the benefits that we receive from nature don’t stop there. In this post, I share a list of ecosystem services that I collated from various articles and books. This list is not exhaustive! However, it does provide an overview of the many different ways that nature supports our well-being.
But first, what is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a piece of the earth of any size that contains living and non-living elements. The interaction between plants, animals, fungi, microbes (living) and soil, minerals, water, and sunlight (non-living) interact to create dynamic systems that transform energy and material.
KEEPING THE ANCIENT
ART OF HINOKIHIMO
ALIVE
After leaving Osaka, we made our way to the tiny secluded village of Higashifuki. The town, located less than 1.5 hours away from the dense and futuristic city, is home to approximately 300 people—most of whom are over 50 years old.
We visited this town to meet up with Hiroto Tanaka-san, a regional food and beverage expert, and learn more about traditional fruit, herb, fungi, and insect-infused alcohols. However, before our tasting, he wanted us to visit with his neighbors who keep the ancient art of hinokihimo alive.
HIGH ALTITUDE PEARLS:
CYANOBACTERIA
FROM THE ANDES
Hiking alone as a woman in the Andes can be intimidating. Before heading out of my adobe homestay perched at 4,100 masl. (14,450 ft.) I nervously asked my host Mario if I needed to watch out for any personas perilgrosas (dangerous people). A perplexed look shot across his face, and he replied with emphasis, "no, es muy tranquilo aqui" (it's very relaxed here)
After a few hours of trekking in the pristine mountainous environment, it dawned on me how silly I must have sounded to Mario. So far, the only other living entities I encountered (besides all the plant friends) were free-roaming herds of alpaca and sheep who were all consumed with chowing down on ichu grass. At one moment, I did spot a hawk circling above me, looking for prey. Shortly after, I spotted its target, which was a native squirrel-esk animal called a viscacha.
CONSERVING WILD
POTATOES
After my undergraduate, I received a Fulbright grant and lived and worked with indigenous Quechua communities in the southern Peruvian Andes for nine months. The objective of my research was to collect the baseline data needed to formulate plans to help conserve wild plant diversity. I carried my fieldwork out at the Parque de la Papa, located 40 kilometers from the city of Cusco in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
I used a mixed-methods approach to collect quantitative and qualitative data on two wild potato species Solanum acaule and S. bukasovii. In participation with community members, we carried out localized ecogeographic surveys to record spatial, habitat, and biophysical data on wild potato relative populations and identify ‘hotspots’ of diversity for conservation action.
ROAD TRIPPING
IN JAPAN
In 2019, my partner and I took a three-month road trip through Japan. We drove over 7,300 kilometers (4,500 miles).
I experienced Japan as a place that has an incredible aptitude for seamlessly blending things that are in contrast to one another. Ancient temples, raked-pebble Zen Gardens, 600-year-old cedar trees, dense rolling forests, and traditional farming villages are juxtaposed to futuristic towers, bullet trains, fluorescent neon lights, and superhighways. The country’s ability to meld old and new is remarkable.
However, what I’ll remember the most is how kindheartedness of the people. Incredible hospitality and warmth are ubiquitous in Japan.
PEACH GUM CRYSTALS:
A GEM OF AN
INGREDIENT
Imagine you receive an invitation to a lavish banquet. The guest list includes gods, goddesses, deities, and a few select deserving mortals. What’s on the menu? Celestial peaches that will make you live forever.
In Taoist mythology, the peach tree (Prunus persica) is emblematic of longevity. The Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu), living in a jade palace at the margins of heaven and earth, is known for hosting large feasts and serving peaches from her orchards. Those peaches, ripening every 3000 years, can grant eternal life to anyone lucky enough to eat them.
Last week in Chinatown, I discovered an ingredient that breathes life into this ancient myth— peach tree gum. The amber-hued sap that oozes out of wounds on the bark or broken branches of peach trees has been referred to in Chinese as Táohuā lèi “tears of the peach blossom.” The dried, hardened substance resembles uncut jewels and is harvested to make anti-aging soups and desserts.
DESIGNING FOR
CHANGE
Landscape architects have a growing responsibility to contribute to the revival of biodiversity and ecosystem services. There is an increasing need to design landscapes that are more resilient to rapid environmental change and unpredictable extreme events. One strategy is using ecologically driven planting design that strives to enhance biodiversity at the genetic, species, community, and ecosystem levels.
I carried out a study with Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects to understand how to incorporate more genetic or within-species diversity into the planting design of Pier 42, a waterfront redevelopment project in Lower Manhattan. In October 2021, the blog World Landscape Architecture published an essay that presents our study and proposes two strategies to counteract the reduced accessibility of genetically diverse planting material.
HACKING CHENGDU'S
BIODIVERSITY
Biodiversity is the extraordinary variety of life on Earth. The sheer immensity of different plant and animal species, along with microorganisms, soils, and sediments, forms the foundation of landscapes (both natural and constructed). Researchers highlight urbanization as one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. We reduce and alter biodiversity patterns when we convert habitats into cities by constructing buildings, building roads networks, filling wetlands to create parking lots, and shaving down and hardening coasts and riverbanks. However, we need biodiversity in urban areas to help cool and clean air, absorb and filter water, store and sequester carbon, and improve human health and wellbeing.
CHICHA: THE BELOVED CORN BEER FROM
THE ANDES
With trepidation, I slowly put one foot in front of the other. I could barely keep up with my new friend. People affectionately call her Mamita Rosa. She was taking me to the small plot of corn that she tends on the outskirts of her village. We walked alongside ancient terraces that the Incas built. Today, people living in the Andes have repurposed these old raised agricultural beds into footpaths to navigate the steep terrain more easily. Rosa's feet had already memorized how to grasp the ground below.
Rosa cultivates corn for chicha, a fermented drink beloved by the people living in Peruvian highlands. She brews chicha for her family, neighbors, and foreign visitors. Her chicha flows at markets, weddings, baptisms, festivals, funerals, and the sowing and harvesting of crops.
COLLECTING WILD POTATOES
Collecting wild potatoes was one of the most equally terrifying and exhilarating experiences of my life. The International Potato Center invited me to go on a wild potato germplasm collection expedition in the Cusco region. This is a technical way of saying we drove around looking for wild plants related to potatoes. We then collected specimens for herbarium pressings and seeds and tubers for long-term storage at the gene bank in Lima.
There are over 150 known species of wild potatoes that naturally occur throughout the Americas. Wild species are found from the southwestern United States to southern Chile, with most species concentrated in Peru and Bolivia. They grow in diverse soils and climates, from the dry
desert along the Peruvian coast, to the
inter-Andean valleys, up to altitudes of 4,700 masl.
CROP WILD RELATIVES IN
SOUTHERN AFRICA
The fifteen countries that make up the Southern Africa region contain a wealth of occurring wild plant diversity. This includes feral rice, millet, eggplant, cucurbits, sorghum, sweet potato, cowpea, pigeon pea, sesame seed, coffee, watermelon, okra, and asparagus species. As the countries in the region covert historic landscapes into new cities, roads, and agricultural fields, the ecosystems that harbor these valuable plants become threatened. Everyone that drinks coffee in the morning or enjoys a slice of watermelon in the summer has a stake in the conservation strategies that Southern Africa develops.
CLIMATE-SMART WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
Water is the primary medium through which most people on earth will experience climate change. Shifting rainfall patterns, retreating glaciers, and extreme weather events are causing fluctuations in water availability, supply, and quality. These impacts disrupt millions of lives and threaten food supplies, energy production, and human health.
Healthy biodiverse ecosystems can help people adapt to or better manage these changes. For example, better-protected wetlands can help purify water and control floods. Conserving or restoring forests or grasslands can slow run-off, increase soil water retention, and recharge groundwater resources. When it comes to farming, changes such as planting more diverse crops, including drought-tolerant native varieties, can help food production cope better with changing rainfall patterns.
