Hello! My name is Haijatai Hines, I’m 24, and I live in Colorado. There are a lot of things that make me interested in plants. My family had health issues. Some were focused on health in general. I remember going to the health food store with my granny and aunt to do whatever they were doing back then. I was always interested in vitamins. As I got older, I became interested in herbs. Plant bitters helped me with the ongoing digestive issues I had when I was younger. That’s the reason why I can eat cheese to this day with no issues now. Plants built my body back up in ways that Western medicine lacked when it came down to insight. I also want to learn more about my culture’s plants and their health benefits. Possibly other cultures as well. I hope to learn more about the technical parts of plants for understanding as this class progresses. I want to be able to obtain more knowledge than when I came in.
My favorite plant is the Nepenthes distillatoria. Such a beautiful plant that I’ve loved for awhile now. I love carnivorous plants because they remind me of me. Beautiful, but don’t get too close!
Welcome Haijatai,
what a beautiful drawing! I love these historic botanical illustrations, just gorgeous, and carefully done. This paper has a nice write-up on the many tales about carnivorous plants https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/161/4/329/2418471. And an inspiring story of healing supported by plants from one of my idols and fellow breast-cancer survivor, Sandy Knapp https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/nature-and-breast-cancer-the-plants-that-saved-a-botanists-life.html
Plants do a lot of healing from medicines, through meditation, and other forms of healing, not to diminish their contributions to making this planet livable through photosynthesis. We would not be here were it not for plants!