Smart plants
Plants and trees are important to humans on many different levels. Representing 99 per cent of the Earth’s total biomass, they provide food and shelter and are a significant oxygen source. Wild areas full of trees are ideal places to temporarily withdraw from human culture. Beautifying gardens and parks, vegetation also improves the aesthetics of urban environments.
A landmark bestselling book published in 1973 investigated the possibility of plants possessing remarkable abilities that few people had seriously considered. Christopher Bird and Peter Tompkins’ The Secret Life of Plants contained a number of mind-bending experiences involving plant cognition, emotions, telepathy and communication at a distance. As the authors anticipated, it was viewed as nonsense by the scientific mainstream. Following one failed high-profile attempt at replication, this judgement stuck.
Unfortunately, The Secret Life of Plants had some undesirable knock-on effects. In the 1980s, scientists working with plant communication faced an uphill struggle in being taken seriously, obtaining funding and being published.
Since then, the persistence of a few researchers has brought plant perception back within the tent of mainstream science. Over the past few years, these discoveries have snowballed and many traditional assumptions have been overturned. There is no escaping the idea that plants
