Summer Bonus Episode: The Plant that Never Dies

to make you sound like an expert. We are on summer break right now, but because Molly and I cannot stop our plant addiction, we're going to bring you some mini episodes to brighten up your feed and grow your plant curiosity. Throughout the summer. We're dropping incredible stories from growers, advice from experts, and we'll have some fun conversations around

fascinating plant facts. In this bonus episode, we're talking about one of our favorite plants, known by its common name Polly Podium Polypodiodes, or as everyone else calls it, the

Resurrection Firm. Listeners, if you haven't figured it out by now, I love learning new things, and one of the things I am kind of obsessed with is things that seem totally dead but aren't so In biology, there's a whole category called the Lazarus taxon, and it's filled with plants and animals that everyone decided had gone extinct until some scientists spots them in the wild and they realize it's

actually still existing in the world. And then there's something called the Elvis taxon, where scientists think they've spotted an extinct plant again, but this time it is just look alike. So this is kind of like if you see a guy who looks like Elvis at the mall and you start pointing and yelling to everyone around you that Elvis is still alive, but it's really just an Elvis impersonator.

But my favorite favorite of these almost morbid things are plants and animals that seem to be dead but then reawaken. So Charles Darwin was once astonished by a beetle that played possum for twenty three full minutes. There are frogs like the zombie wood frog that literally stop its heart and freeze to survive the icy Canadian winters and then suddenly wake up when the weather's changes and they just hop off. But the thing I'm currently most obsessed with

is this Resurrection firm. It is a gorgeous, gorgeous firm that preserves itself during times of drought by curling up those fronds to the point where it appears completely dead. And you guessed it. Despite its gray and withery appearance, it's not actually dead. So here are six facts I just learned about the resurrection from that I had to share with you. One, according to the National Wildlife Federation, this plant can lose an astonishing nine of its water content.

But what's stunning is that the moment it's watered again, it resurrects itself and turns green and leafy once more. By contrast, most plants cells collapse and die when they've lost just ten of their water, all of which means the resurrection fern is basically the perfect house plant if you're terrible with plants. Two, it's got some fun nicknames. In addition to being called the resurrection fern, it's also sometimes referred to as the miracle fern and the little

gray polypod. Three. You can find these ferns in some surprising places here in the u s. They're mostly found climbing old oak trees in the American South, kind of in the low country, and although they anchor their slender stems on the bark. They are not parasites. The ferns climbed the trees to escape the competition for resources from other groundcover, but once they're up above they feed off moisture in the air and run off water that drips off leaves and branches. For there is a super cute

story of how the plants traveled to outer space. In South Carolina middle school got fascinated with the plant, and the students suggested to NASA that it might be worth taking the plants to space to see if they could perform their trick in zero gravity. So astronauts did Resurrection ferns boarded the space Shuttle Discovery, and just as you might expect, they sprung back to life in space. Two. Five.

The plant actually has medicinal qualities too. Native Americans used to brew the root into a t to cure sore throats, and they put the root into poultices to treat hives and inflammation as well. Six. If you're wondering how long a miracle fern can play dead, scientists estimate that the planet can play possum for up to a hundred years, a hundred years before they can drink a little water

and suddenly they're showing off those luxuriant greens again. That's it for today's bonus episode, but check back here again soon for more bonus episodes this summer. And don't forget no matter what season it is or where you're at in your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration from My Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow. Our show was written and produced by Molly

Sosha and me Mongy Shit Together. This episode was edited and engineered by our pal Matt still O