Portulacaria armiana, the langlootspekboom

Portulacaria armiana, one of five species of Portulacaria found in South Africa, lives in desert conditions. The long flowering stems and large, fleshy leaves make it easy to recognise in the veld, for those few that may reach the remote Gariep River area where the plants grow.

This is a strange plant in its adaptation for coping with the challenges prevailing in its ecological niche. Apart from a thick, moisture-storing, basal stem from which the branches grow, there is a multitude of disc-like, succulent leaves that store more juice for the thirst doled out by the desert. But these are common features among local succulents. The proportions of the flower stems are not:

The very long flowering stems of P. armiana, reaching several metres above the leaves, may have evolved because of the need for flower protection or possibly seed dispersal from the dizzy height. The temperature may be lower a few metres above the sun-baked earth, allowing flowers to last better until spotted easily from a distance by pollinators.

Such flowers, if they were grown near the ground, might also have served as food for the locals of the area, like the dassie rats. These diurnal rodents, scientificall known as Petromys typicus, are hungry about as often as everybody else on earth. Consequently, they would be wont to try all things edible on the meagre menu of nature’s local desert eateries. So, tantalise them by dangling the flowers up there!

It might take dassie rats very many generations to evolve sufficient tree climbing skills. By then P. armiana plants may be "working on" a dassie rat proof floral fragrance. Or spines?

And so on in the cut and thrust of everything alive continually striving to become an up-to-date species, fit for survival. In a race that can only be abandoned in the death of the species, or all of them. Life is beautiful enough for all to keep racing with every available ounce of vigour and blind resolve.

Especially interesting too, if one can fast-forward in the mind to forthcoming episodes and expected outcomes. Unfortunately, one will not be around to witness what really happened over the numerous generations of the favourite subjects one studies.

Any consolation? Every moment in time witnesses a few unique notes of the evolutionary waltz lasting as long as there is life around of any kind. The witness, a privileged participant blessed with some understanding as a survival tool and now possibly a villain, is always guaranteed some action. For everything is ready to participate in living off each other in the fashion of whoever might service whatever need whenever it arises.

Miss out and die childless, not participating in the future of the species. Make it and also die but a little later with offspring that may become the next solution for a time. There is always much to marvel at in the land of the living, albeit in a desert or in an Eden where the species bond and brawl in their mindless, procreative problem solving.

As long as a species defies the odds, staying alive, theres always more in store for it from natural selection, the great discriminator between who lives to breed and who doesnt. Good chance outcomes prolong participation.

Chance decides in nature; nature is part chance. Life always fights hard in every species. Nature would not have it any other way, grew them to be so. Still, nature ignores the thousands, millions or billions of individuals in every species that succumb in the process. It sticks to the bigger picture, is the bigger picture.

The death at species level is such a bigger death than the passing of any individual, a diminishing of nature itself (Williamson, 2010; Frandsen, 2017; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; http://pza.sanbi.org). 

(There is more on P. armiana elsewhere on this Site, accessed via the Search Box.)