In 1966, Cleve Backster claimed that his Dracena plant could read his mind. More recently, botanists at Penn State University discovered that the five-angled dodder vine could hunt down its prey by scent. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that plants are not only intelligent, but they also communicate this intelligence to the ecosystem.
All life is interconnected through a primal and sacred language that was part of ancient culture. Some believe that man, who used to be able to communicate with plants, has lost touch with this language.
How Plants Communicate
Emerging research shows that plants are not only intelligent, but deeply conscious of their communities. They are communal beings and their behavior is essentially linked with the ecosystem in which they grow.
For example, healthy plants can sense what their community's need in terms of soil chemistry; they deliberately increase their production of the missing ingredients and send them into the soil for distribution. Trees that have been cut or injured are supported with nutrients through a network from neighboring healthy plants.
Moreover, some believe plants know how cry for help. Ecologist Richard Karban of the University of California, Davis, examined this plant version of communication in a 2008 paper in which he details how plants release a complex blend of volatile chemicals when they are attacked by mites. These chemicals attract other insects that prey on these mites. Moreover, the volatile signals are "read" by neighboring plants which immediately "beef up" their own defense mechanism.
Plants Demonstrate Self-Recognition
According to Karban's current research, plants "may be able to distinguish self from non-self." His research shows that a sagebrush plant can tell the difference between its own airborne signals and those of other sagebrushes.
This was shown in the reactions these plants exhibited when they received volatile signals from different sources. When chemical signals from genetically identical plants were received by a sagebrush, its resistance to the attack was much stronger than sagebrush plants exposed to volatile signals from genetically different plants.
Plants are Problem Solvers
If problem-solving is one of the signs of intelligence, then some say plants are very intelligent. The dodder vine mentioned in the introduction of this article knows enough about its surroundings to bypass human throats for tomato stalks, which it embraces tightly before sucking out its juices.
The Amazonian Stilt Palm knows how to track its area for sunlight. Once it has found the right location, it sends out new roots and "de-activates" old roots that have grown in the shade.
Several studies also show that rhizomes know enough to "construct a three-dimensional perspective of their local space...to exploit resources, thus receiving rewards for successful behavior."
Plants can also change their genetic structure when they are under stress, and in a very short period of time, they can produce a highly variant offspring that can adapt to the new environmental demands. Their capacity to learn and adapt, discover solutions to problems attests to their evolutionary advantage – they learn to function within the ecosystem, not against it.
With this evidence at hand, some believe it is time that man recovers his sacred identity with plants. Instead of placing homo sapiens above the animal and plant kingdoms, many say man would be wise to understand that the sacred force of the universe is part of all matter.
As Stephen Harrod Buhner states in The Lost Language of Plants ( Vermont, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2002), "all things possess a soul, a sacred intelligence or logos" because all things are made from the sacred. All things - including plants.
Source:
- Milius Susan. "No Brainer Behavior." Science News. June 20, 2009. Vol. 175 #13.
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