Pioneers! O Pioneers!

By the time its fruity aroma alerts you to the presence of this plant you're probably crushing it underfoot. Never mind - it thrives on it: the highway is its habitat and its road to success.

These little cones are the flowers of Pineapple Weed Matricaria discoidea or matricarioides. The plant has no need of petals since they would only get crushed under the feet and hooves and wheels it relies upon for dispersal. You can find it growing on the compacted surfaces of paths, tracks, yards, gateways and parking areas, wherever traffic of any kind regularly comes and goes.

If you rub the leaves or flowers between your finger the released scent of pineapple is unmistakable: you can use it to make a calming tea and the plant has many other therapeutic applications among the indigenous people of its homelands in Northern Asia and Northwest America.

Pineapple weed arrived in Britain from Oregon, supposedly, in the late 19th century and was recorded growing in several places before 1900. But in the first quarter of the 20th century it really took off, an unobtrusive but relentless pioneer that reached every part of the country. Its success was due to a modern phenomenon: motorized transport. Pineapple weed's minute ribbed seeds evolved to adhere to the muddy feet of passing animals and be carried along the route until they fell off and germinated a few yards or miles further on. The boots and cartwheels of human travellers suited the process even better but when the patterned treads of car tyres entered the equation pineapple weed knew no bounds. Everywhere a motor vehicle could get there it would be. Step on it, roll a truck or tractor over it, drive a herd of cows across it, it all encourages its pioneering spirit to move on up the road.

All the past we leave behind,
We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world,
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

We detachments steady throwing,
Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,
Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

(Walt Whitman)