Origin of Species: happening before my eyes.

The broadleaf maple as we identify it has a history of adaptation to the conditions on the BC coast and is still adapting and adjusting to a whole host of influences. Those late leaving leaves that make this tree an individual may only be a marker that goes along with many unseen changes. If things change around it it may be better adapted than its surrounding companions, in which case its seed will be the common broadleaf maple for a while.

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Outside our bedroom window is a broadleaf maple tree that differs from it's neighbours. It keeps its leaves two weeks longer than the one beside it and others on our property. Every year it does this, and if it were not the first thing I see in the morning I'm sure I would never notice or care. However I have been reading 'The Beak of the Finch' by Jonathan Weiner, a detailed and interesting exploration of evolution as a ongoing process that happens right before our eyes and not something solely involving fossils and long periods of time. Now I look at my land and feel the complexity and sense the flux of diversity leading to rapid changes. That maple tree is different from its tribe and if I looked more deeply I would also see the changes brought by invasive rabbits and plants, by longer dryer summers and milder winters.

 Of course the biggest driver of adaptation on my property that is leading to evolution is human kind with our clearings in the forest, gardens, houses and roads. I create change through my own actions but still struggle to notice the results. To see my world as a blur of adaptation, of change, rather than as a static backdrop to my human activities requires a major shift in perception.

The trees are bowing outside my window to the gales of Autumn at this moment but are also adapting as they adjust to a whole range of changing conditions. That maple with its last remaining leaves is a red flag once I know what I am looking at.