These plantains trees have survived fire and storm, you would be surprised

These plantains you're seeing has been around longer than I've been alive. I'm not missing words I'm telling you the truth. The compound it's on is where I grew up. Of course that's just the undeveloped side of the place.

But there's been storms that broke it, there's been people that came to cut some down, it's only a matter of time and time grows again and stands the test.

Close to it was a rubbish dump site until they cleared the whole place for sanitation reasons. They use to burn the rubbish there, and the fire would not only burn the rubbish but the plant too. It's Survived being burnt as well.

How come this plant is that resilient? The answer is in the title of my blog.

The plantain isn’t resilient because it is strong. The plantain is resilient because most of it is underground.

What appears to be a trunk is actually layers of leaves tightly coiled around each other. There is no wood, there is no bark. Instead, there is a pseudostem that looks like it should be fragile but it is not. When it is burned by the fire or torn apart by the wind, it collapses quickly and regenerates even faster. The damage inflicted is superficial and doesn't go below the surface.

Because that is where the plant really lies.

The corm is intact underground. It holds the water and energy necessary for growth. Even when the top of the plant dries up and burns away, it doesn’t affect the corm in any way. It continues sending sprouts and growing new leaves, repeating the process again and again. Year after year.

So it's not exactly resilience in the sense of motivation but the very biological survival structure of the plant. Some called it plantain tree and I had to correct them that it's actually herb.

But that is not all to it, because by growing and dying, the plantain enriches the soil around itself. The dead leaves decompose and return nutrients to the ground. The ashes left behind from fires are broken down into potassium. Not only does it resist its environment, but it helps improve it in the process. Every year, the soil is slightly better than before. Talk about your destruction enabling you to do even more.

There are few things in the world that appear to be thriving because they have protections but the plantain has none. It has a root that is able to withstand whatever happens above ground.

_{Posted using SteemX}