Summary: NOTE: The mnemonic of another plant (Oxalis stricta | Love Love Love) in this course is based on the “Rule of 3s”. The mnemonic of this plant is based on the “4 essentials of survival”. It’s impossible to survive without shelter (protection from the elements), fire (heat, purify water, cooking), water and food. MNEMONIC EXPLAINED: When you see snow flakes (tiny white flowers) on the ground you know right away that you need a fire in order to stay warm. You have no way to start a fire and it’s getting cold and dark. Suddenly, from the darkening sky, you watch one of the stars (star-shaped sepals [leafy-like structure beneath petals]) in the starry sky fall (shooting/falling star) right at your feet and erupt into flames (each leaf, like each single flame, is pointed and oval-shaped). Extend your arms (leaves, like your arms are opposite of one another; your arms represent seedpod stems that are long, are in pairs and they droop) toward the fire to warm your hands (your hands represent 5 petals [that look like 10] when they are open and capsule-like seedpods [each on the end of a long arm/stem] when they’re closed). Any fire and any person will die if not fed. To feed the fire you hike toward some trees in order to gather wood. STOP! Do you see that squirrel? It’s on the trunk of the tree that’s right in front of you. Slowly back away in order to make a slingshot out of a y-branch (stem has elastic string core; just imagine breaking the branch in order to make the “y" section [the sight] even, and discovering the elastic you need is right there in the core of the branch). The squirrel is still there when you return. You pull back on the elastic and take aim but the squirrel, like squirrels do, ran to the opposite side of the tree trunk. You run to that side and it runs back to the other side. This goes on-and-on (line of stem hairs alternate at every leaf pair) until eventually you are able to take aim and hit it. Now you have fire, food (stem hairs represents the squirrel) and water (at camp melt some snow; water reminds you that the plant does NOT emit milky sap when cut]. Shelter is made by making an a-frame with some branches and covering it with sections of thick, green mats provided by the plant (grow in dense, tangled mats).
