Micropyle is the Gateway to Love...

On a very rainy Saturday in early May, Bill Twomey hosted an introduction to Trees of the Lowcountry at Caw Caw. Bill’s expertise and humor were a wonder to witness. A retired forester, Bill described his “love of trees as a gateway drug to the rest of the natural world.”

Bill reminded us why trees are keystone species of their ecosystems and walked us through a primer on the evolution of plants. I do not have a biology background, so this was my first introduction to plant evolution and reproduction. My notes start out strong: “the indoor plumbing of tracheophytes appearing 400,000,000 years ago is what allowed the structural support of plants to grow upward.”

But I was quickly distracted from note taking by Bill’s excellent presentation and instead wrote my own questions like, “what do you mean ferns spawn?” And hilarious Bill quotes like, “micropyle is the gateway to love.” Due to the rain, the Walk & Talk portion has been rescheduled for early June.

My biggest takeaways were that our Southern Red Cedars and Eastern Red Cedars are actually junipers, that juniper berries are actually cones, and that Bill’s recommended breakfast of toasted sourdough with peanut butter and sliced ripe peaches may be the most practical field knowledge of all.