good plant, bad plant

i attended the pasir panjang heritage trail that was held in conjunction with heritage fest last saturday. my group of 10 participants had the privilage to have oi yee as our flora and fauna guide around kent ridge park. after which participants were to left reflect at the reflections at bukit chandu.

oi yee is a retired biologist who actively paticipates in the activities of the raffles museum of biodiversity located at NUS. when i grow older, i hope to be as vibrant and impassioned as her.

i am not much of a green person, but oi yee did enlighten me about how intriguing plants can be. among which was a good plant and bad plant. my reference is overly simplistic of course, because in nature, nothing is really bad, each living or non-living thing has a role to play.

good plant - the pioneer plant

Among natural plant communities, there exist plants that are exclusively adapted to be 'pioneers'. These plants dominate the early years of the community's life. Following a disturbance they occupy space quickly and aggressively and stabilise the soil surface. This ability makes them important for inclusion in revegetation projects where they will give quick ground coverage, reduce weed invasion and provide protection for longer-lived species. Pioneer plants mature and set seed quickly creating a seed source for recovery if the revegetation was to be affected by a disturbance.

Revegetation in agricultural landscapes has generally been with a limited number of popular or easy to propagate trees and shrub species. It is often a collection of what are essentially climax community plants, i.e. a mature vegetation community where many of the short-lived plants in bushland have disappeared through natural attrition. Revegetation of this kind may lack the ability to regenerate if it were to be destroyed by a significant disturbance, such as a fire.