Windy and I wandered into the middle of the field where the poplar is, she decided to swim in the horses' water and I made myself comfy in the recently cut, prickly grass.
Sure enough, a newcomer always attracts attention and I had a few horse visitors - just coming to check me out. Horses' muzzles are lovely things - velvety soft and warm, with their thick, hairy and inquisitive upper lip. Human hair is also a lovely thing to a curious horse (*insert rubbery lip "shmooshing" through my hair here*)! Horses eyes are at the sides of their head and they can't see their noses, so nature kicks in with her own fine-tuned sensors. All around the muzzle, there are heaps of thick, strong hairs that function as "object detectors". When they touch/brush up against something, alarm bells ring at the end of the hair, and the horse knows not to go there. (Unless of course the something is a feed bucket and there's something tasty inside!)
These hairs protect the horse's nose and mouth from serious injury, they normally can feel things coming. Sea anemones have the same kind of "feeler" strands; and most mammals have these "whiskers" around their eyes and mouth area too. In many cases, animals cannot see very well, either due to eye placement or ability to adapt to variations in light - these whiskers come in handy!
Wouldn't it be great if visually impaired humans could "feel" the table 3 inches away, before they walk into it? Or if your car had a sensor that told you when you were 6 inches away from the vehicle behind you when you a trying to back out of a parking spot?
Horse's hooves are also marvellous. During evolution, they lost four out of the five toes and starting running on the fifth toes, rather than using their whole foot. This has given them an advantage in terms of speed - they run much faster on their toes that they would otherwise. Horses are herbivores and herd animals. When in comes to predation, they are animals of "flight" rather than "fight". Thus, the ability to outrun the enemy is what ensures survival. The nail of this toe has been altered to create a hard, protective shoe-like casing around the toe. Thus, the hoof is born -a tool that enables the horse to run faster and further than most of their predators. Most ungulates (mammals with hooves) have two or three toes, horses and their family have one. Horses are all-terrain animals, and their hooves can heal themselves if they get damaged. The hard casing is constantly growing and being regenerated. Imagine if you never had to buy a new pair of shoes again - because the pair you had grew with you, and never wore out. These shoes are manufactured totally benignly, and when you are through with them, they will biodegrade.
Carqueja leaves remind me of the coloured lines in a tube of toothpaste. They have three "panels" of leaf that come out in the central stem line. These panels twist, spiraling down to where the leaf joins the other leaves, at the base of the plant, at the roots. I wonder if this spiral shape is in place as a natural irrigation/water movement system. The rain water that hits at any part of the leaf will spiral down the leaf like a child down the slide at a water park. The water is channeled directly to the plants roots.
Carqueja grows everywhere in Uruguay, from the coast, to the interior; from wet to dry; hot to cold. This water harvesting technique must be responsible for the survival of the plant in some of the rougher terrains. There are areas in Uruguay where water scarcity is a part of life, and in dryer times - things can become quite difficult for people and animals. The sketch below shows what the spiral shape would be like if the carqueja leaf only had one "wing" - it has three, thus tripling its water collection ability.
Surface area needs to be taken into consideration when creating "raincatchers". If the surface area could be increased by going upwards and using spirals - it is possible that we would be able to harvest more rainwater before it returns back to the earth, and in many cases, be contaminated through toxics such as herbicides and pesticides that are present in the soils.
"Horneros" are "ovenbirds" because they build their little houses/nests out of mud, and they look like the old mud ovens that one uses to bake with coals --- and to make fantastic pizza! They build the nest for protection for themselves, the eggs laid by the female and for the hatched young. They collect up soils and mash them up, constructing the foundation for their hut on top of telephone poles, in the "V" created by branches, on walls, on fence posts - wherever they can. Who knows why they build such sturdy nests while other birds prefer lighter, more makeshift models. It may be due to rain, or wind conditions. Maybe to protect from the heat or from the cold (mud is a great insulator) or possibly to safeguard themselves against predators? These are factors that all birds have to deal with. Ants arethe only other organism that I can think of that create homes from mud. Mud was used in some of the first buildings and homes created by man. It is a plentiful resource, can be used for building with little need for expertise or experience, and does not require "heat, beat and treat" processing.
Seed dispersion and propagation is one of nature's principle concerns. Plants nuture their seeds with all of their being, their fruit is their only legacy. Protecting these seeds while they mature and later, making sure that they are given a head start is the duty of any responsible plant. However, in today's day and age - with all the environmental threats that a simple little seed is faced with, one has got to have some serious ambition to get anywhere.
Above left is my attempt at drawing butia, a sweet and pulpy berry-like fruit that grows on some palm trees. The ants, birds, goats and cattle all love it (so do I). The birds peck away at the flesh, and the seed falls to the ground. Hopefully, while eating, the birds will have left some fertiliser at the base of the tree where the seed falls. Goats and cows eat the entire fruit, often swallowing the pip. This means that they are later deposited with their own nutritional starter pack. This is definitely a win-win situation. The animal gets food, and the seed gets to travel, and they have a head start in terms of having a nice place to germinate!
The grass on the left, also uses other organisms to spread her seeds far and wide. They are sticky! And will stick to animal legs and tails, human legs, socks - you name it!
Below, on the left is a sketch of another kind of parent/seed relationship. I don't know what the plant is called - but it is SUPER thorny! The stem, leaves, seed are all covered with thin, sharp thorns 2-3mm long. I tried to grab one but the spikes penetrated the card I was using to protect my fingers --- I left it well alone. This is a case of over-protective parenting! But, one has to admit, no one is going to mess with that baby! Later on in the season, the seed casing will split open and thousands of tiny splinters will be distributed around, scattered in the wind. This process is not unlike that of the dandelion (below right) whose seeds are weightless - and when they are mature - float off effortlessly into the breeze and are gone, off into the world!
I found this orange flower on my walk back to the house. It is so different to any other flower that I've discovered during previous nature observations. The bright colour is so eye-catching and appealing. I wonder if it being more colourful (and bigger) than the vast majority of the flora on tha campo makes it more attractive to bugs and polinators? I did notice that while I was drawing, it was visited by a large number of tiny tiny flies - like fruit flies. I couldn't pick up any particular scent - but it could be that it was too subtle for my big, insensitive nose.
What I really loved though was the strange shape and bright colours (I couldn't get good photos of the sketches, the flash made things too bright, but without it, they are very dark -- Sorry!).
I hope you enjoyed our foray into nature's funcionality! I know I enjoyed trying to figure out why things are the way they are... as well as what we can learn!
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