Sometimes "Dead" is Not

"Dead" gum bumelia - Sideroxylon lanuginosum

Re-emerging from the root
Plants are tenacious. I often think that we could learn a lot from them if only we really paid attention to what they have to tell us. In the past, I wrote about this plant and had given it up for dead. I feel that I had every right to give up on it. More than four months ago, the top started showing signs of death and in the ensuing months, the upper stem died.  I watched it daily looking for signs of life, but none appeared. It was dead and eventually the entire stem turned brittle enough to snap off at the ground level. This was an especially tough setback for me and my developing woodland as this was an especially difficult plant for me to find. Gum bully (Sideroxylon lanuginosum) is a wonderful small tree. The spring blooms are one of the best magnets for pollinators I've found during my 33 years of working with Florida native plants and the deep purple fruit are prized by songbirds. It has an interesting, somewhat twisted, aspect and its foliage is attractive with the undersides of the leaves covered by coppery colored hairs (trichomes).  Despite all of these features, it is almost never propagated by anyone affiliated with FANN - the Florida Association of Native Nurseries. The one I had planted in my former home came from a hobbyist like me that grew a few from seed. The one I now have came from a similar source and it was the only one he had for sale. When I installed it, it was a most beautiful specimen. When it started to die, it was most devastating because I knew how difficult it would be to replace. Today, I discovered that I might not have to.
This is not the first time in my gardening experience that a "dead" plant has come back to life. Plants are definitely tenacious. My scrub plum (Prunus geniculata) actually "died" 3 times in my landscape after I transplanted it from my former home in Seminole. After its fourth "death", however, it sent up another trunk that has persisted. Today, it is 3 feet tall and forming flower buds that I hope to see open this coming spring. The real life of a plant is centered in its below-ground stem and roots. If plants have a "brain" - an organ that organizes information and responses, this is where it occurs. Just as in animals, the brain is the last organ to fail us before true death. I often use the frostbite analogy when I'm lecturing. In mild frostbite, we lose the outer appendages that we can most afford to lose - fingers, toes and ears for example. In severe frostbite, we lose more important appendages but our brains and hearts continue to function until the bitter end - should it occur. The same thing occurs in plants undergoing severe stress. They first lose their leaves, then the most outer stems and then their trunk. We see the "death" of our plant, but we don't see what is occurring underground.  Often, that part of the plant is still struggling to live. Today, I discovered that my dead bumelia had not given up on me or my landscape. I have no idea why the upper trunk died. What stress caused this may occur again and eventually win this life and death fight, but today life is winning out. Today, I discovered that all of my original plantings have survived. That I don't have to mourn for any of them - yet, and that makes this a great day here in Holiday.

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