Harding, perhaps more than any other, carried that truth in his heart.
It is imperative that the history they carry not be lost.ĭr. Harding was the quiet, behind-the-scenes architect of the Riverside sermon, the most prophetic sermon of King’s career, in which King boldly moved beyond the predictable race script to critique materialism and militarism.įor a few years now, as the leaders in the Civil Rights Movement generation who survived that era have been joining their ancestors, I have been steeling myself for the loss. Others will have never heard of this civil-rights prophet who inspired and nurtured Dr. He will be mourned by millions who know him only through his prolific writing.
Vincent Harding will be mourned by hundreds of thousands of people who had basked in the glow of his slow, gentle smile and heard his quiet, mellow tones of encouragement urge them into the struggle. “Don’t remove mistletoe because you think they’re all bad,” he said.My mentor, my holy man, my history teacher, and my friend died Monday, May 19th. Not only does mistletoe help other species, it may not hurt trees or shrubs as much as once feared.
It tends to flower in winter when nectar or pollen from many other plants is not yet available. Though this may be true for an individual tree, mistletoe has an important role ecologically, benefitting birds and pollinators. However it is that mistletoes communicate, Nabity says they don’t necessarily need to be removed from infected trees.įorest managers have long maintained that removal will increase tree health. These compounds evaporate quickly into the air, sending signals that can be received down wind. Plants produce chemical compounds and release them through their pores. It’s also possible they may “smell” one another. It’s possible the mistletoes send messages using the xylem. They are connected to a host’s xylem, the tissue that trees use to move water and nutrients from the roots. Nabity, who studies interactions between plants and insects, explained that communication among mistletoes is possible through a variety of methods.
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A tree full of related mistletoes increases the parasite load for the host, though the infection may not be as severe as it otherwise would be if infected with unrelated plants. Often times, birds feed from and guard a fruiting mistletoe and in the process, defecate seeds into the same tree from which they came. “It appears that the remaining mistletoe recognized it was no longer competing for resources,” Nabity said. When researchers removed one of two mistletoes from a branch, they saw the plant left behind did not increase its photosynthesis, and in some cases reduced its water intake. For this experiment, the researchers examined a native species of mistletoe found throughout the Sonoran and Mojave deserts that often grows on acacia, palo verde or mesquite trees. The Christmas mistletoe is a European species that tends to attack apple and other hardwood trees in central California. “They seem to know when they’re attacking the same host, and can reduce the virulence of their attack,” Nabity said.Ī new paper describing this finding was published today in the journal Current Biology. Nabity’s team found when two mistletoes invade the same tree, they increase photosynthesis to get the nutrients they need, essentially sharing the tree and causing it less harm. “Mistletoe are mostly heterotrophic, but they can switch if they want to.” Humans are heterotrophic, we eat it,” explained UC Riverside plant-insect ecologist Paul Nabity. “Plants are autotrophic, they make their own food. However, it prefers to siphon water and nutrients from other trees and shrubs, using “false roots” to invade its hosts. Like other plants, mistletoe is capable of using sunlight to create its own food, a process called photosynthesis.
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