My other
cousin, Mukthevi Ramanujam, a biologist, now living in Bangalore, gave me a
book, in 2004, Independent Birth of Organisms, by Periannan Senapathy, when
briefly working for the latter’s genomics company. This book proposed an
alternative to one aspect of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. While I am skeptical
of its premise and arguments, it was a wonderful primer on genetics, DNA,
evolution etc. Ramanujam (whose nickname is Govind, within the family), also
loaned me Nick Lane’s Power Sex Suicide,
which explained mitochondria, cell physics and chemistry and a number of things
that have held my fascination. This enhanced the curiosity and fascination
about biology, provoked by Jared Diamond’s book Guns Germs and Steel.
One of
the special pleasures I had been aching for during in the last few years, was
to visit the Burgess Shale in Canada, the Amazon rainforest, and islands of
Ternate where Wallace wandered, his wonders to evoke. During this current US
visit, my science yatra, I was at least hoping to visit Yellowstone and Seuqoia
National Parks. The Burgess Shale must wait another trip, as must the latter
two, but, the Natural History Museum in Washington awaits.
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Windmill at Golden Gate park |
Golden
Gate Park
Visiting
another cousin, Vivek Sriram, in San Francisco, I realized that he lived two
streets away from the Golden Gate park (he jogs there frequently) and walking
through it last Friday, I discovered a Botanical Gardens, with a guided tour on
Saturday. My random observations provoked my brother Jayaraman’s curiosity, so
with Frank Caggiano, we took the Saturday tour.
Our
docent was Coley, an extraordinarily informed and informative lady, with an
avid passion for the botany of the park. There was only one other person on the
tour, a San Francisco native, who said his father worked in India. He seemed to
be a regular at the park.
Coley
told us the design and history of the park, its founding, and then about the
Botanical Garden, which is a small section of the large Park. Some of the
gardens were designed with rocks from dismantled Spanish castles, which were
shipped to San Francisco!
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Coley - the Lady in Blue |
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Stones from a Spanish Castle |
I had
earlier visited the JC Bose Botanical Gardens in Calcutta, and wandered around
the gardens of the Theosophical society, and even went to a couple of tours in
Madras, guided by Nizhal; of the Kotturpuram Tree Park and some trees of the Kalakshetra
campus. All this besides the wonderful and frequent insights from Prof
Swaminathan, the most avid plant aficionado, I know personally.
San
Franciso has a mediterranean climate, which means it can sustain Mediterranean
vegetation from both the northern and southern hemispheres. It gets cold and
foggy often, but rarely frosty, which means that even tropical plants like
palms and bananas grow here. The San Francisco Botanical Garden has several
themed parks, segmented by geographic region, such as Australia, South America,
Asian cloud forests, California redwood, and the most bizarre, South African.
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Regional Gardens at SFBG |
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Board explaining Australian species |
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Australian bottle brush tree |
In
addition, there were three other interesting garden segments:
1.
a
Fragrant garden, full of herbs, spices, and other culinary aromatic plants;
2.
a
Rhododendron garden;
and
most fascinatingly
3.
a
garden of Ancient Plants
This
last is a wonder – I was hoping to see such a display at the Atlanta Botanical
Gardens, and perhaps the Kew Gardens in London.
When
Oxygen Polluted the Earth
The
Earth’s atmospheric and climatic conditions have dramatically altered over the
last 4.5 billion years, during various geological epochs. That is part of
evolution. Life played a major part in influencing this atmospheric evolution.
Cyanogens changed the atmosphere of the world from methane to oxygen, driving
archaea into rare habitats.
Two
Evolutionary Explosions
Besides,
for the first 4 billion years there was nothing much by way of plant or animal
life on earth; mostly bacteria, fungi and protists. It is only after the
Cambrian explosion about 500 million years ago that life on Earth became such a
rich and delightful diversity. But, wait! Scientists estimate that the Permian extinction
killed of 96% of all species on earth! Now, how would a gardener or a biologist
bring to life what has been extinct for over 300 million years? What survived
the Permian event, the severest of five major extinction events?
Also, the
plants most familiar to us – flowering plants - are also the most recent branch
of the Plant Kingdom. They evolved 150 million years ago. The sudden evolution
of Flowering Plants rivaled the Cambrian Explosion. “Flowers are an abominable
mystery,” rued Darwin, and they continue to be an abominable mystery.
The
biologist JBS Haldane wondered why God, if he existed, had such an inordinate
fondness of beetles, that he created forty thousand species of them, more than
any other genus in the animal kingdom. God seems to have an equally inordinate
fondness for flowering plants, as they dominate the Plant Kingdom.
They
also drive our idea of plants, in the first place. Mosses and Liverworts are
plants, but most of the general public would be loath to see them in a
botanical garden. There are also a variety of sea plants, but we rarely see an
aquarium of sea plants, whereas every city seems to have an aquarium for sea
animals. But I was not too disappointed on this count; Land plants dominate the
Plant Kingdom, even more than Flowering Plants. Incidentally, the single most
amazing statistic of biology, is the extent of this domination.
I have
wandered more randomly over this essay, than I physically wandered in the
Garden. Let us see what wonders Atlanta holds for us. Just seeing the amborella
would be a major highlight.
I
recommend Craig Savage’s Biology lectures for those who want a more ordered and
fascinating overview of the Kingdom of Life.
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Typical redwood - massive |
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Weird redwood, branches growing downwards |
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Bizarre plants from South African cape region |
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Antarctic plants? |
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Palm tree that used bad shampoo |
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Botanical boom microphone |
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Black Lotus!! |
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Pineapple Palm |
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Red Angel Trumpet |
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Organized Diversity |
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Omelet flower :-) |
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Evolutionary time line of plants |
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Plaque explaining Geological eras |
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The Ferns thatwere common before Flowers evolved |
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Aesthetically sculpted sign |
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Entrance to Japanese Tea garden at Golden Gate Park |