Sweetgrass depends on clonal rhizome spread, leaving it unable to recolonize fragmented land.

Evidence

But those tender white rhizomes cannot make their way across a highway or a parking lot. When a patch of sweetgrass was lost to the plow it could not be replenished by seed from outside. Daniela has revisited many places where historical records show sweetgrass once lived, more than half of which no longer carry its fragrance. The major cause of decline seems to be development, native populations eliminated by wetland draining, converting wild places to agriculture and pavement. As nonnative species come in, they may also crowd out the sweetgrass—plants repeating the history of their people. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 960

Categorization

• XREF: Reciprocity with the land is possible even where land and nature are absent (ch58) — this chapter shows the flip side: land fragmentation breaks the plant-people reciprocity chain. Also connects to ADDENDUM on trees as infrastructure and lost ecosystems. — connects to: Sweetgrass recolonizing disrupted land teaches that brokenness lies in human-land relationship — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1232; Shade herbs persist only in small gaps unless sheltered by taller plants — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1463; Herb response to gaps fails through five distinct limiting constraints — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1487

Broader Connections

• Sweetgrass recolonizing disrupted land teaches that brokenness lies in human-land relationship #complicates (0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1232
• Herb response to gaps fails through five distinct limiting constraints #exemplifies (0.75) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1487
• Shade herbs persist only in small gaps unless sheltered by taller plants #qualifies (0.70) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1463