I am pretty gobsmacked at the level of , for lack of a better word, angst against cultivated plant observations. Why ? Without a doubt none of us would be eating well without “cultivated plants”.
And oh please don’t say farm plants cannot be part of this debate. That is just what is it called splitting yak hairs,
Whether we like it or not cultivated plants are here. They are wonderful and useful, they are messy and horrible (in India Lantana is some of the horrible ones - Lantana brought in, probably, as a cultivated flower).
As some one who introduces people to nature that goes a bit deeper that selfies with roses I encourage them to see everything around. For people who have no idea of wild and exotic / cultivated, it is quite possible that cultivated plants are what they see first and most. To then burden them with no you must only see wild things is plainly not going to work.
I , for one, at this point of time, am afraid of calling anything wild or cultivated. For years, from when I was a small child, the Tamarind tree was and is my most favourite of plants. The old trees are easy to climb - yeah they have ants but so what, the leaves are edible, the flowers are edible, the fruit is edible in all stages. As an adult I appreciated the highways lined with old grand shady trees , and the wood used in artistic crafts. The trees are lovely to look at , the leaves are so beautiful.
Sigh… What a tree this Tamarind is, going by many local names इमली (Imli)/ புளி (puli) Tamarindus indicus.
For years I believed this to be one of “India’s” best trees.
So imagine my shock on seeing the dreaded pink exclamation mark.
To quote wikipedia
``Tamarindus indica is probably indigenous to tropical Africa,[14] but has been cultivated for so long on the Indian subcontinent that it is sometimes reported to be indigenous there.[15]`
So while it came as shock, a rude big shock, it hasn’t changed my love for this tree, and has made me appreciate , even more so, many other cultivated plants that may have been planted yesterday, or some 100’s of year ago.
