Fiddlehead ferns are amazing. I guess when you are among the most ancient of plants, you have had time to think about your strategy. It’s all a race for height, winner shades out the competition. But if you jump the gun and start growing to soon, you risk getting frozen and/or snowed on. So, the problem becomes: How to wait til it is reasonably safe to emerge, but then get really tall really fast. And there are limits to how fast you can grow through sheer metabolism.
The fiddlehead solution: Build a tall structure ahead of time, in a freeze-resistant underground bunker, all coiled up and ready. When the time is right – DEPLOY! They don’t have to grow tall, just unfurl.
And boy do they ever! They get taller almost as you stand there watching. They also grow plenty fast as well, but it’s the coiled-up tower trick that really gives them the edge over everybody.
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GO!
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Reaching for the sun.
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About 2 days worth of height. Notice how far ahead of the competiion they are - almost everything else is brown.
UPDATE June 8th:
