Scouts

My jade plant is making aggressive moves to occupy more of my living room.  Every so often, while watching television, I will catch a movement from the corner of my eye; something dropping to the floor at my bay window.

The “somethings” dropping to the floor are scouts.  That’s what I call them.  Scouts are sections—sometimes large chunks or whole arms—shed by my jade plant.

The plant is clever.  These scouts dropped to the carpet are not expected to simply wither and die.  Far from that.  They are expected to seize ground.  Most of the soldiers falling to the ground have tendrils (aerial roots) extending from some segments of their growth. The idea is simple.  If the scouts fall onto soil, they take root and claim it.

On occasion I have swept up smallish scouts from the carpet and thoughtlessly dropped them into the nearby pot supporting a Christmas cactus plant.  Just the other day I noticed that one of the scouts I had deposited in the Christmas cactus had rooted into the soil and was putting forth shiny new growth.  I plucked the scout from the soil and flicked it out into my wild front yard.

The scout will be happy, I suppose, until it meets our Montana winter.

Posted is a photograph of a scout that fell to the floor.

They are aggressive little fellas.

—Mitchell Hegman