A bucket of salt

Putting salt around the base of a tree in that large a quantity (a
bucket-full) would poison the soil for the acid woodland trees.  Certain
plants have adaptations for salty ground--usually involving something that
raises the osmotic tension within the cells.  Sugar Beets do this with sugar,
naturally.  There are salt grasses, salt bushes and salt-tolerant plants of a
wide range of sorts--including tamarisk to a degree and some "sage brush,"
although the Great Grey Sage (*Artemisia tridentata*--I probably spelled that
wrong) or western native wormwood--is not one of the salt tolerant plants.  It
is an indicator plant of deep, well-drained soils ideally suited for
irrigation agriculture.

Here in the woods, dumping a bunch of salt on a walk or driveway can--and
does--poison ground for grass and shrubs, but with the high rainfall, the salt
is soon leached and the plants recover--sometimes.

Neil Mogensen  z  7  western NC

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