Part 1: The most amazing weed ever
By Andy Valencia
There is a weed named Tomtomtidimiddletom who lives on our property. How did he get that name? That’s a long story, and won’t fit here. But he – and all his friends – shortened the name to “Tom.” But having a name, and a shortened name, is not what makes Tom amazing. All weeds have names, and most have a shortened name.
Tom started as a seed, blowing in the wind. This is the way of seeds, and as they blow along they know that most of them will land somewhere and dry out. Or get pecked by a chicken and then digested. Or land in a bit of soil and put out a little shoot which withers and dies. It’s a tough world for weeds, but seeds don’t fret. It’s just the way it is.
So there was Tom, blowing along in the wind, and looking at all the places he might land. At this point he was pretty focused. He wasn’t admiring grass or flowers or people with nice clothing. No, when he wasn’t thinking about “dirt and water,” he was thinking about “water and dirt.” As you’ll see later in this story, weeds have a great capacity to admire beauty, but first they need to not die. Thus, his focus.
Ahead, looming larger and larger, was a big block of metal sitting on round rubber feet. “Car,” we’d say. But to Tom it was just big and metal with rubber. And then bump he hit it, and his flight in the wind was over. Home sweet home.
At first he was afraid he was a goner. He was nestled in a piece of plastic, and weeds just don’t have any way to set their roots into plastic. He looked upward, and there was a peek of light up there. And then he looked downward, and there was just a little bit of gritty dirt down there. It was even a teeny bit damp! So he sent a root downward, and then he used the last bit of energy left to send a shoot upward toward the light.
A young plant which doesn’t get enough light does that – sends a thin little shoot upward looking for more light. Gardeners call it being “leggy,” and then they’ll shift things around so the plant can get more light. Well, Tom didn’t have any gardener looking after him, so being leggy was just how things were going to be.
And then things started bouncing around! Suddenly, light was shining on his leggy little shoot, and he started to feed himself. Humans call this “photosynthesis,” and plants call it “yum.” The shaking stopped, and a little bit of dirt drifted down onto him. Tom quickly grabbed it with his roots, adding it to his precious store of dirt.
Presently, he was being bounced around again. But now he was ready. More light, more dirt, and then there was quiet again. The wind blew so hard while they bounced around! But it was quiet now, and he reached up high to gather in as much light as possible. It felt good, and he hardly noticed as the world slowly darkened. Like all plants, he now got very sleepy. His last thought of that amazing first day was that maybe he was going to survive.
