Heroes Not Zombies

Plants have several different strategies to disperse their seeds. One of the commonest is to use the wind. You’re probably most familiar with the seed head of a dandelion. Maybe you even played a game with one as a child counting how many puffs of breath it took to blow away every single seed. The dandelion was probably quite delighted that you enjoyed doing that….a win, win. A mutually beneficial relationship!

Can a dandelion be delighted? Can plants be happy or sad? Of course there’s no way to answer that question because happiness and sadness are subjective experiences. Nobody can really know what your happiness or sadness feels like. But through empathy, observation and imagine we can pick up when someone else is happy or sad. We see it in their expressions and behaviour. We hear it in their tone of voice. We understand it by listening to their stories.

Plants don’t have faces and they can’t tell stories. But we can still observe their appearance and behaviour. We can see when they are flourishing. We can see when they need water. We can see when they are struggling to cope with the heat of the sun.

Plants are aware. They detect the environment around them and respond to threats, challenges and opportunities. Plants have memories. They can remember which direction the sun will rise and turn to greet it. Plants communicate, through the release and reception of chemicals warning others of a present threat, through electrical signals amongst their cells, through vast networks of micro rhizomes entangled in their roots.

Plants, I feel, are a bit taken for granted. Probably because they don’t have faces, can’t tell stories and are limited in their ability to move.

But, hey, don’t you agree that they are absolutely amazing creatures? Often arrestingly beautiful. Frequently astonishing. Simply wonderful.