Trees Growing on top of Boulders
Lithophytes
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was moved to write his short and observant poem of metaphysical speculation "Flower in the Crannied Wall" upon seeing a flower, an orchid if I remember correctly, growing out of a stone wall.
One wonders what Alfred might have thought had he seen the sight Norma, Sam and I witnessed this week on a walk along the lakeshore a bit north of our summer place in Deerfield, NS. In this little walk are many varieties of trees, most importantly the large hemlocks and birches, trees I photographed for the national photography exhibit of the Canadian Forest that will be coming out in the next year or so. What struck us this time, though, were the trees growing upon the granite boulders which abound in this area.
Lithophytes, like what Tennyson saw, are normally small flowers or other plants that grow either in crevices in rocks, or which spring out of small pockets of soil on the surface of the rock. The trees on our walk, however, seem to have wrapped themselves over the rock, the root system reaching for the soil below, but obviously the trees began as small saplings growing as a lithophyte.
Nature has an incredible aptitude for persevering, for finding a way to carry on despite obstacles, and in so doing often creates things that we humans, being so relatively short-lived find amazing. There’s a lesson in there for us – both to preserve but also to persevere.
And to wonder.
"Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is"
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1863
