Syntropy is life and complexity. Even in decay, nature is imbued with life.
We’ve been leading advocates of using Tithonia Diversifilia (Mexican/ Bolivian sunflower) as a master plant to combat the ‘dreaded’ kikuyu grass for the last 10 years. Spreading the knowledge, inspiration and many many stakes of this wonder plant all across North Island, Aotearoa. This beauty is one of our dear tithonia members that has done her task of nurturing the soil and trees around her and now has been out shaded and overcome with signs of age, giving away to a new life form.
This is how nature works and we need to understand these continual cycle. The role of succession each plant plays in the ecosystem as a whole.
It’s also good assurance that, yes folks, beautifully vigorous as your tithonia bushes may be... they will phase out, so don’t fear that they err on the side of rampancy, and rather embrace their force until she has played her part, and the forest overtakes as a complex, robust ecosystem that constitutes to evolve.
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And if you think ahead, you can encourage the new life form that takes over to be one that you can eat (as in this case, wood ear mushrooms) or is beneficial mycelium for the health of the forest.
Do this by either inoculating the stump that’s phasing out with an edible/ beneficial mushroom mycelium or by mulching with inoculated mushrooms substrate, depending on which type of mushroom you want.