AMF and Ruderal Taxa

 Little did I know, arbuscular, is derived from the Latin word arbusucla, which makes a lot of sense. Little tree, arbol means tree, arbuscula is little tree, -ar suffix means belonging to. I thought the word stopped there not mycorhizzal fungi followed it. Almost instantaneously I remembered the words of Dr. El Mounadi, "Mycorhizzal fungi and carbon are really important to keep track of to know how biodiverse the soil is." Mycorhizzal fungi have a special sense of belonging to the little trees, and yet the way the communicate is also very much like that of litte branches and networks of tree pathways that aren't even visible to our eyes. "The whole really does add up to more than just the sum of it's parts." has to be one of my favorite eternal truths. Together, united we stand, working together we will always be much stronger than trying to solve solutions in a "lone survivor mentality."

Ruderal Taxa are typically the first ones on the scene after a massive crime scene, not the police and by that I mean a wildfire, landslide, exploitation of any kind. First coined by Berlin ecologists after WWII due to the many plants that first errupted in now blank canvases. Ruderal Taxa are the first to colonize disturbed land. Which Ruderal Taxa invades, will more than likely depend on the climate and specific geographic location of where you reside, a.k.a. your particular biome. Most commonly noted in our area is the beloved dandellion. From what little I do know I can only imagine that one could classify these ruderal taxa at some point or another a weed and or invasive species. The interesting part is that they multiply like flies on cow pies. The main job of these plants is to colonize, therefore, in the case of our dandellion containing as many as 150-200 seeds per head.