The Heritage Herb Gardens at the Ozark Folk Center grace the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas. With their natural display, they help us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.
All plants are native to particular biomes. The word
biome has only been in existence since 1915. The prefix bi means two. A Wikipedia search of the suffix ome reveals that it has been used
in botany or zoology, forming nouns in the sense "a part of an animal or plant with a specified structure" and in cellular and molecular biology, forming nouns with the sense that "all constituents are considered collectively".
Biomes are geographical areas of the world that are inhabited by plant and animal communities adapted to the environmental conditions found in the regions. The environmental conditions are created by climate and geography. Though there are disagreements as to the number of biomes on the planet, everyone seems to agree that the world biomes that are not under water include tundra; taiga (synonym spruce/moose); tropical savanna; grassland (synonym prairie, plains); steppes; temperate deciduous forest; chaparral (synonym scrub forest, Mediterranean) desert; desert-scrub; temperate rainforest; tropical rainforest and alpine. Three basic climate groups controlled by planetary air masses and latitude dominate specific biomes.
The specimen plants growing within the boundaries of the Heritage Herb Garden are not necessarily native to the Ozark region, which is located in the deciduous forest biome of North America. We can control the environment enough to grow non-native herbs either in the garden soil or in containers. Environmental control methods include watering or providing mist or restricting water, amending the soil, choosing specific mulch materials, spacing plants, providing extra winter light to increase day length, placing plants appropriate light and growing specimens in containers that can be moved as needed. It is good to know everything about the biome from whence they come.
This week we will look at Group II for clues to growing herbs from around the world in the Ozarks. Group II consists of Mid-latitude climates that are controlled by the conflict created by tropical air masses moving from the equator towards the poles and polar air-masses moving from the poles to the equator.
Dry Mid-Latitude Climates (the steppes biome) occur in the interior of continents in the rain shadow of mountain ranges. As a result, they experience very low rainfall and humidity, have droughts most of the time, and have very cold winters and warm to hot summers. The soils are poor and support only grasses. Fires occur frequently. The latitude range is 35° to 55° North. The steppes occur in Western North America in the Great Basin, Columbia Plateau and the Great Plains. In the Eurasian interior the steppes occur in Eastern Europe to the Gobi Desert and North China. We do not grow any grasses imported from the steppes.
The Wet-Winter, Dry Summer Mid-latitude climate (the chaparral biome) encompasses tiny slivers of the global land mass but is the original climate of our Mediterranean culinary and medicinal herbs. Included in the chaparral biome are the coastal regions of southern and central California, southern Europe and northern Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea; coastal western and south Australia; the Chilean coast, and the Cape Town region of South Africa. The latitude range is 30° to 50° North and South. The dry summer sessions may last up to five months. The annual precipitation average is 17 inches. Dill, basil, lavender, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are but a few of the plants that come to us from the Mediterranean birthplace of Western civilization. The eucalyptus gum trees come from the chaparral of Australia and scented geranium plants come from South Africa.
Next week, we will finish Group II of the climate zones which include the grasslands and deciduous forests biomes. If I don’t see you in the future—I’ll see you in the pasture!