241
the botanical spectrum. The outcome, post-Linnaeus, is a pan-floristic langue open
to radical alteration (not least transgender, asexual, and the like).
Botany poses the ultimate series of scenarios in terms of projecting habitat vulnerability. A member of the Cuphea genus, rose, Asclepias, hold the secrets to inviolable scenarios of collapse. The more taxa are discerned, the larger the volume of
at-risk species, and liable ecosystems. Scientists at the University of Arizona
“recently estimated that there are roughly 2 billion living species on the planet, over
a thousand times more than the current number of described species.”
5
We may
surmise that photosynthetic eukaryotes, Plantae, represent their most emphatic and
mind-altering ambassadors on earth.
So when we speak of the destruction of flower habitat, we actually are not certain
of its extent or acceleration, except to acknowledge and correlate the extrapolations
from our understanding of devastating changes to other biomes like coral reefs and
the neotropics, Geographic Information Systems-inferred total estimates of biomass, and even mathematical probability theories lending substance to speciesspecific extinction models,
6
the psychology of which must—whether we are up to
admitting it—cotton to the currencies of communication among humans—from
Swedish to Latin, Latin to English, English to thousands of other languages. Because
the lingua franca of a plant is, typically, its floret and efflorescence, human personality must be taken into account when assessing botanical equations intended to be
peer-reviewed. Every review has its psycholinguistic bias; every bias is human;
every human is different. Botany, ultimately, is playing a game of floristic roulette
in terms of evolutionary quotients (Fig. 26.2).
26.2 Ground Zero, Colorado
My (mt) early California and Colorado home turfs are noteworthy in regard to
assessing botanical peril. California remains one of the 36 terrestrial hotspots, in a
Mediterranean Floristic Province, and—as of 2016—222 endangered, 83 threatened species under the (ever deviating) aegis of the Federal Endangered Species
Act, and out of a total of an estimated 6500 California plant species. By 2025, the
state’s human population is expected to increase from 39.937 million to 45 million
in 2050. But other organizations who tally the continuing rise suggest 45 million by
2030. The numbers are entirely politicized because of immigration positions, and
hence we exclude footnotes for those numbers because their variations are wholly
5 See “A new estimate of biodiversity on Earth,” The Quarterly Review of Biology, September
2017, University of Chicago, PHYS ORG, https://phys.org/news/2017-08-biodiversity-earth.html,
Accessed May 12, 2019.
6 See “Predicting When Plants Face Extinction Threat, Mathematical model will help conserve
biodiversity, says UC Riverside’s Carla Essenberg,” UCR Today, by Iqbal Pittalwala, June 15,
2012, http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_43725, Accessed May 13,
2019.
26.2 Ground Zero, Colorado
the botanical spectrum. The outcome, post-Linnaeus, is a pan-floristic langue open
to radical alteration (not least transgender, asexual, and the like).
Botany poses the ultimate series of scenarios in terms of projecting habitat vulnerability. A member of the Cuphea genus, rose, Asclepias, hold the secrets to inviolable scenarios of collapse. The more taxa are discerned, the larger the volume of
at-risk species, and liable ecosystems. Scientists at the University of Arizona
“recently estimated that there are roughly 2 billion living species on the planet, over
a thousand times more than the current number of described species.”
5
We may
surmise that photosynthetic eukaryotes, Plantae, represent their most emphatic and
mind-altering ambassadors on earth.
So when we speak of the destruction of flower habitat, we actually are not certain
of its extent or acceleration, except to acknowledge and correlate the extrapolations
from our understanding of devastating changes to other biomes like coral reefs and
the neotropics, Geographic Information Systems-inferred total estimates of biomass, and even mathematical probability theories lending substance to speciesspecific extinction models,
6
the psychology of which must—whether we are up to
admitting it—cotton to the currencies of communication among humans—from
Swedish to Latin, Latin to English, English to thousands of other languages. Because
the lingua franca of a plant is, typically, its floret and efflorescence, human personality must be taken into account when assessing botanical equations intended to be
peer-reviewed. Every review has its psycholinguistic bias; every bias is human;
every human is different. Botany, ultimately, is playing a game of floristic roulette
in terms of evolutionary quotients (Fig. 26.2).
26.2 Ground Zero, Colorado
My (mt) early California and Colorado home turfs are noteworthy in regard to
assessing botanical peril. California remains one of the 36 terrestrial hotspots, in a
Mediterranean Floristic Province, and—as of 2016—222 endangered, 83 threatened species under the (ever deviating) aegis of the Federal Endangered Species
Act, and out of a total of an estimated 6500 California plant species. By 2025, the
state’s human population is expected to increase from 39.937 million to 45 million
in 2050. But other organizations who tally the continuing rise suggest 45 million by
2030. The numbers are entirely politicized because of immigration positions, and
hence we exclude footnotes for those numbers because their variations are wholly
5 See “A new estimate of biodiversity on Earth,” The Quarterly Review of Biology, September
2017, University of Chicago, PHYS ORG, https://phys.org/news/2017-08-biodiversity-earth.html,
Accessed May 12, 2019.
6 See “Predicting When Plants Face Extinction Threat, Mathematical model will help conserve
biodiversity, says UC Riverside’s Carla Essenberg,” UCR Today, by Iqbal Pittalwala, June 15,
2012, http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_43725, Accessed May 13,
2019.
26.2 Ground Zero, Colorado