Asclepias purpurascens (CC 6), A. syriacus (CC 1), and A. tuberosa (CC 6)
I consider myself a plant geek, and somewhat of a computer geek, but a math geek I’m definitely not. Numbers are not my friends. Generally, that’s not a problem in the mostly non-numeric world of gardening. Apart from having to remember a few simple measurements and conversion factors, I figured I’d be free of complicated math after college. So I was appalled when I first heard about the Plant Stewardship Index (PSI): a system for quantifying the “naturalness” of a piece of land. The idea of assigning numeric values to plants, adding them up, and running them through esoteric formulas seemed at first glance like a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense. Within the first few minutes of hearing it explained in a lecture at the Millersville Native Plants in the Landscape conference a few years ago, though, I was totally hooked by the idea. Continue Reading →
