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Greg Rubin Text by Deborah Small The Indian Rock Native Garden (IRNG) Project is a 3-way collaboration between the San Luis Rey Band and art and anthropology students and faculty at the University, but it is really much more than that. Mentors for the project, such as native plant landscape designer Greg Rubin, are repositories of knowledge of relationships vital to the cultural survival of the Luiseño community. Greg is the primary plant consultant assisting in every aspect of the Indian Rock Native Garden, in the field as well as the classroom. A former aerospace engineer, Greg has shapeshifted into a passionate advocate for the establishment of native plant communities. A large part of Greg's mission, and now ours, is the removal of invasive exotic plants destroying chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and oak woodland habitats, all part of the IRNG site. The Indian Rock site is full of exotic plants. Greg points out a particularly nasty Brazilian pepper, a deep-rooted philodendron, as well as a dense stand of South African jade that we must remove. He points out a South African bird of paradise, an Australian melaleuca, a stand of South American agave attenuata, and a Brazilian jacaranda trees, The non-native jacaranda is, ironically, San Diego’s official tree. Greg points to a particularly beautiful Australian bottlebrush growing next to Indian Rock. We talk of other plants, the invasive ones, and how our ideas of beauty change. How we once thought Argentinian pampas grass or Mediterranean tamarisk trees were beautiful. How the introduction of exotic species can completely shut down the immune systems of native plants, and diminish the ecological integrity of the region. exotic adj. 1. from another part of the world; not indigenous;foreign. 2. Having the charm of the unfamiliar; strikingly and intriguely unusual or beautiful . . . —n. One that is exotic. native n. 2. (a) an original or indigenous inhabitant of a region, as distinguished from an invader, explorer, colonist, etc.; (b) an indigenous plant or animal. A student photographs a South African bougainvillea before it is extricated. We all must learn to identify exotic as well as native plants, so we know which ones to pull out and which ones to leave. Exotic species are so pervasive at the site that Greg recommends pulling out all the stops. In his war against weeds, Greg's assualt weapons of choice are the herbicides Round-Up and a pre-emergent. His other weapons are more conventional, weed whackers and plain hard work to root out the exotics that have spread everywhere. His enemies are the profligate European mustard, oatgrass, and filaree , all invasive exotic species that will outcompete the natives at the site. Next, Greg takes us on a tour of the native plants still growing at the site. He points out three different kinds of lupines and tells us the importance of each one to the ecology of native plant communities. He points out the prolific matilaja poppy, also known as the fried egg plant, whose huge white flowers are 8 to 10 inches across. We examine the tangled growth of the enwish_wild cucumber, a pioneer plant that helps reestablish the ecology of a disturbed site. The wild cucumber's large brown seeds were pulverized and used as a vehicle for the paint for the rock pictographs. Greg points out the native mulefat, buckwheat, coyote brush, and laurel sumac still growing on the site. We observe the old katput_elderberry tree growing in an outcrop of rocks. Elderberries, Greg tells us, are the most important food source for native birds in summmer months. The elderberry is also considered one of the most sacred Luiseño plants. Its leaves were used in blessing ceremonies. Its prolific flower blossoms were brewed as a tea to break a fever. Elderberries were prized as a delicious food. New branches were used for arrow shafts. After removing the pith from larger branches, men made flutes and clapper sticks. The roots of the elderberry were used as an emetic to induce vomiting, and the pith on the inside of branches as a gum to clean teeth. Women stripped the bark from the elderberry bark to make skirts or aprons. Greg is teaching all of us to read the landscape. When he looks at the remnant elderberry, for instance, he knows that the area was once oak woodland, that beneath Indian Rock itself is an ancient aquifer that sustained the native plants and the people who used them. Greg also enumerates for us many of the components of the site that are missing-plants once part of coastal sage scrub and chaparral plant communties-toyons, gooseberries, currants, heart-leaved penstemon, black and white sage, chia, manzanita, summer holly, wild lilacs, sagebrush, sugarbush, golden yarrow, California everlasting, deerweed, chokecherry, sycamores and oaks. Even poison oak, that constant companion of plants in riparian and oak woodland communities, is missing at Indian Rock. By restoring native plants, we are restoring the integrity of the relationships between the plants and the many other species that depend on them, including ourselves. Greg's own elation is palpable when he reminds us how privileged we are to be a part of the IRNG project, how we have the opportunity to recreate native California, one native plant, or rather one plant community, at a time. |
