Plant Identification can actually block your learning, try this instead ...
Hello,
As the first forest flowers begin blooming around me, I have been both celebrating and lamenting how people tend to learn about herbs.
Celebrating because every Spring, there’s a surge of people who want to learn more about plants. Something inside them is stirred and inspired by the energy of growth all around us. It’s beautiful to see people responding to this ancient instinct!
And here’s where I sometime lament… because the first step that people tend to take is a reasonable one that has unfortunate consequences… they ask the simple question, “What’s the name of the plant?”
Depending on how this question is answered makes a huge difference on how you deep you go into the plant world.
Check out a few of my thoughts on it. And if you have other ideas or comments, please post them below.
strength & wisdom.
garliq
Transcription:
hey folks garliq here with the living medicine project and um i wanted to make this video today because i have i've been walking through the woods here and just thinking a lot about um how i used to teach plant walks as one of the first things it's one of the first things that people who are interested in plants want to do is take a plant walk and learn how to name plants and i actually want to discourage that now i mean i still do them but in this video i want to present a different idea that i think will help you to deepen your relationship with the plants uh because it's something that you'll feel rather than just something that you'll you'll intellectualize so i'm here in victoria the uh it's actually this plant right here that kind of caught me you see these let's see i don't know how much you can see that but yeah there's some fresh leaves and some little flower buds on this on this shrub that are starting up here and uh it just had the memory jump into my mind of people always asking you know oh what's the name of that plant what's the name of that plant and i want to encourage you to to honor that when that comes up because that curiosity is really awesome i certainly i'm not trying to to quell in any way shape or form the curiosity that you have about the green world i want to really nourish that and i think the best way to nourish that is actually to not tell you the name of the plant so first of all many plants have many names there's different regional names there's different common names some point to the use some point to this or that some are just really weird and those stories have been lost about where they've come from and what i want to encourage you to do is just give it a name yourself it doesn't have to be the right name in air quotes there it just has to be a name something that reflects maybe how you feel in its presence or something that you notice about it because there's a lot of power in naming and often and here's the thing here's the pattern that i want to help you avoid because because it closes down that curiosity is so often people are they'll point say hey what's the name of that plant and they're really curious i can ask some questions hey what kind of leaf does it have how what kind of roots does it have are there lots around what other plants is it growing with does it like the shade does it like the direct sun you know all these sorts of things what are the companion plants that it's growing around are there insects on it what what's happening you know tell me the whole picture and i'll ask those questions and people will get more and more curious and they'll answer those questions and as soon as i say oh that's this plant and they say oh they think they know something and they move on to the next one like oh now tell me about this one and so it's a way that we end up consuming the information without actually integrating it without actually it making a lot of difference to us when we're in the forest or when we're out in nature wherever that is i'm a forest dweller so i often use in the forest as my default for wherever people are out in nature so yeah and so this this approach really encourages you to develop a relationship with the plant yourself it is totally helpful to have the name that most people use for it and at some point it could be really helpful to have the scientific name uh so that you know for sure that you're dealing with this plant and not that plant especially when you're making medicine that's stuff i really encourage and i think it's really helpful to apply the linear mind to that until then what we have is a relationship that we can have with this with this living being we can notice how we feel we can start to to intuit its medicine uh just start to notice how we feel in response to it uh how it interacts with the world that it lives in and that can tell us a lot because so much of the medicine about these plants so much of what they have to offer to us is actually found in the personality of the plant and not just the scientific name or not just the correct name that somebody tells you oh that's what this is called and so we get caught up in that and i wanted you to i wanted to encourage you to to break that mold to go out to name plants yourself uh quick story here is that i did this exercise with my youngest son where he sat with a plant or he he came and he said oh what's the name of this plant he went through that process i just described and i said how about you just sit and ask it what its name is and so he was gone for a long time and i got busy doing something else in the garage and maybe like an hour later he came back and he said it's jerry i said what what's jerry who's jerry and he was like don't you know come on papa the plant that you asked you told me to go and ask it what its name is its name is jerry was that the name that i was going to give it no is that now the name that he uses every time he sees that plant around or something that looks like it he'll say hey papa is this jerry was he really disappointed and really hurt when we potted it up and took it inside and then i forgot to water it in the winter yeah because he developed a really personal relationship with this plant and so now he he called it jerry right like i had no idea and it taught me a lot even though i've shared this teaching for many years it taught me a lot about what actually happens in the heart of a child and i think that when we can when we can relate to ourselves and really treat ourselves our inner children with that same care with that same uh nourishing of curiosity and recognition of the natural connection that we have with the world then so much can be learned and it's so nourishing for us so uh yeah so if this resonates with you please share with some friends um i haven't done this before i mean i've been making a few videos recently i haven't done the explicit ask you to sign up to subscribe and to click the notifications i am going to be creating a lot more content in 2021 and uh so if you like these videos then then check them out and pass them around it'll help me a lot and i'd love to hear about your you know how this stuff lands for you so that's it for me today thanks so much i'm garliq with the livingmedicineproject.com i will talk to you next time
hey folks garliq here with the living medicine project and um i wanted to make this video today because i have i've been walking through the woods here and just thinking a lot about um how i used to teach plant walks as one of the first things it's one of the first things that people who are interested in plants want to do is take a plant walk and learn how to name plants and i actually want to discourage that now i mean i still do them but in this video i want to present a different idea that i think will help you to deepen your relationship with the plants uh because it's something that you'll feel rather than just something that you'll you'll intellectualize so i'm here in victoria the uh it's actually this plant right here that kind of caught me you see these let's see i don't know how much you can see that but yeah there's some fresh leaves and some little flower buds on this on this shrub that are starting up here and uh it just had the memory jump into my mind of people always asking you know oh what's the name of that plant what's the name of that plant and i want to encourage you to to honor that when that comes up because that curiosity is really awesome i certainly i'm not trying to to quell in any way shape or form the curiosity that you have about the green world i want to really nourish that and i think the best way to nourish that is actually to not tell you the name of the plant so first of all many plants have many names there's different regional names there's different common names some point to the use some point to this or that some are just really weird and those stories have been lost about where they've come from and what i want to encourage you to do is just give it a name yourself it doesn't have to be the right name in air quotes there it just has to be a name something that reflects maybe how you feel in its presence or something that you notice about it because there's a lot of power in naming and often and here's the thing here's the pattern that i want to help you avoid because because it closes down that curiosity is so often people are they'll point say hey what's the name of that plant and they're really curious i can ask some questions hey what kind of leaf does it have how what kind of roots does it have are there lots around what other plants is it growing with does it like the shade does it like the direct sun you know all these sorts of things what are the companion plants that it's growing around are there insects on it what what's happening you know tell me the whole picture and i'll ask those questions and people will get more and more curious and they'll answer those questions and as soon as i say oh that's this plant and they say oh they think they know something and they move on to the next one like oh now tell me about this one and so it's a way that we end up consuming the information without actually integrating it without actually it making a lot of difference to us when we're in the forest or when we're out in nature wherever that is i'm a forest dweller so i often use in the forest as my default for wherever people are out in nature so yeah and so this this approach really encourages you to develop a relationship with the plant yourself it is totally helpful to have the name that most people use for it and at some point it could be really helpful to have the scientific name uh so that you know for sure that you're dealing with this plant and not that plant especially when you're making medicine that's stuff i really encourage and i think it's really helpful to apply the linear mind to that until then what we have is a relationship that we can have with this with this living being we can notice how we feel we can start to to intuit its medicine uh just start to notice how we feel in response to it uh how it interacts with the world that it lives in and that can tell us a lot because so much of the medicine about these plants so much of what they have to offer to us is actually found in the personality of the plant and not just the scientific name or not just the correct name that somebody tells you oh that's what this is called and so we get caught up in that and i wanted you to i wanted to encourage you to to break that mold to go out to name plants yourself uh quick story here is that i did this exercise with my youngest son where he sat with a plant or he he came and he said oh what's the name of this plant he went through that process i just described and i said how about you just sit and ask it what its name is and so he was gone for a long time and i got busy doing something else in the garage and maybe like an hour later he came back and he said it's jerry i said what what's jerry who's jerry and he was like don't you know come on papa the plant that you asked you told me to go and ask it what its name is its name is jerry was that the name that i was going to give it no is that now the name that he uses every time he sees that plant around or something that looks like it he'll say hey papa is this jerry was he really disappointed and really hurt when we potted it up and took it inside and then i forgot to water it in the winter yeah because he developed a really personal relationship with this plant and so now he he called it jerry right like i had no idea and it taught me a lot even though i've shared this teaching for many years it taught me a lot about what actually happens in the heart of a child and i think that when we can when we can relate to ourselves and really treat ourselves our inner children with that same care with that same uh nourishing of curiosity and recognition of the natural connection that we have with the world then so much can be learned and it's so nourishing for us so uh yeah so if this resonates with you please share with some friends um i haven't done this before i mean i've been making a few videos recently i haven't done the explicit ask you to sign up to subscribe and to click the notifications i am going to be creating a lot more content in 2021 and uh so if you like these videos then then check them out and pass them around it'll help me a lot and i'd love to hear about your you know how this stuff lands for you so that's it for me today thanks so much i'm garliq with the livingmedicineproject.com i will talk to you next time