Punk Time

Punk Time by Earl Plato

Punk. Remember punk sticks anyone? We used them to set off our firecrackers. Once lighted the sticks would glow on the end. No flame. It was a useful tool for us. The late naturalist Bert Miller showed us as he scraped the dried spores from a Horse shoe fungus. He collected the powder in a little glass jar. Later he threw some of this spore dust into the blazing campfire. Instantaneous bursts of blue-tinged light flared out. That’s what punk sticks were made of as I recall. I did a little research thanks to my nature writer mentor Ed Teale. One November day Ed and his wife while walking through their evergreen forests encountered little yellow clouds of living dust spurting ip around their feet. I have experienced this too during these November days. Life-producing spores are carried on the wind to replenish and spread the species. Ed was walking through Ground pine, Lycopdium complanatum. I remember them as small deep green, tree-like masses
covering a large area, Teale says, “It is one of the earliest plants to appear on earth. So primitive a plant that it is placed after Horsetails in botanical listings.” The wonders of Created nature continue to amaze me. So uiniform in size are the spores of the Ground pine that one time they were used as the standard in microscopic measurements. It was used as the source of illimination in the earliest flashlight photography. In the field of medicine the Ground pine dust was used for coating pills to prevent them from sticking together. An anazing plant with special properties. It is also known as festoon pine, creeping Jennie, Christmas green, hogbed, and crowfoot. Any names familiar? Now as Fall is here the plants turn from green to progressively more golden as the microscopic dust of the spores matures, Where do youn find these plants? I found mine in a dense forest of evergreens. Keep exploring in nature.-Be curious, eh.