Plant of My Land: Pond Edges

Plant of My Land is a BOTANY and other stories project. It asks people who live in Hay-on-Wye and the surrounding area – whether British or born elsewhere in the world – what is the plant that they associate with their home.

Sophie Ferrier is a multimedia artist and ecological activist. She also runs a community interest company called Hay Regenerative Soils, where she recycles the nutrients from the local towns food waste and turns it into living soils.

When I think of pond edges, I think of... Pillwort

Pillwort (Pilularia globulifera) is a rare, native, rhizomatous grass-looking fern that releases spores that are held in little pill cases called nodes at the bottom of the plant. It embodies vulnerability like myself, an echo of our ecosystem. However, it relies on the practice of small-scale grazing to survive and can’t thrive in overpopulated areas; it needs space to feel comfortable, hardly a competitor.

Sitting around the edges of ponds mimicking grass, you may fall in as you think it’s a lovely bright green lawn, but don’t be fooled. Living amongst freshwater ecosystems, it is devastated and declining due to agriculture and urban runoff.

I think of this plant because, with its vulnerability and reliance on the environment around it, it screams for the diversity of what an ecosystem needs to thrive, in its small, gentle, non-threatening way. A reflection on how we as humans need space, non-polluted water, assistance from animals, and vulnerability.