Passing the field lab

 I’ve been watching a sandbank along the South River near Panola Mountain.

I’ve seen it scraped like a construction site — nothing but sand — after a flood. But this week it was knee deep in grasses — including some ryegrasses that were introduced by European settlers. There were knee-high thickets of sweetgum sprouts and one belt-high tulip tree.

The seeds that stock this place come in by air, water and animal. Sometimes, after the flooding currents have scraped the sandbank bare, you see grass. Sometimes you see rivercane.

We visit this place only occasionally. I wish that a younger version of myself could visit it daily, study it for years and record the succession of plants. I think I could learn a lot — almost get an education — from this quarter acre.