The Botany of Desire...so I grew up I am?.. Flowers can also be used to convey a message, and to share our feelings..Brilliant Green THE SURPRISING HISTORY AND SCIENCE OF PLANT INTELLIGENCE

Plants behave in some oddly intelligent ways: fighting predators, maximizing food opportunities ... But can we think of them as actually having a form of intelligence of their own?
Are plants intelligent? Can they solve problems, communicate, and navigate their surroundings? For centuries, philosophers and scientists have argued that plants are unthinking and inert – yet discoveries over the past 50 years have challenged this idea, shedding new light on the complex interior lives of plants.Are plants intelligent? Can they solve problems, communicate, and navigate their surroundings? Or are they passive, incapable of independent action or social behavior? Philosophers and scientists have pondered these questions since ancient Greece, most often concluding that plants are unthinking and inert: they are too silent, too sedentary -- just too different from us. Yet discoveries over the past fifty years have challenged these ideas, shedding new light on the extraordinary capabilities and complex interior lives of plants.
In Brilliant Green, Stefano Mancuso, a leading scientist and founder of the field of plant neurobiology, presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world. Combining a historical perspective with the latest in plant science, Mancuso argues that, due to cultural prejudices and human arrogance, we continue to underestimate plants. In fact, they process information, sleep, remember, and signal to one another -- showing that, far from passive machines, plants are intelligent and aware. Through a survey of plant capabilities from sight and touch to communication, Mancuso challenges our notion of intelligence, presenting a vision of plant life that is more sophisticated than most imagine.
Plants have much to teach us, from network building to innovations in robotics and man-made materials -- but only if we understand more about how they live. Part botany lesson, part manifesto, Brilliant Green is an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom.
In Brilliant Green, leading scientist Stefano Mancuso presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world. He argues that plants process information, sleep, remember, and signal to one another – showing that, far from passive machines, plants are intelligent and aware. Part botany lesson, part manifesto, Brilliant Green is an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom.
www.ted.com/talks/stefano_mancuso_the_roots_of_plant_inte...
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World is a 2001 nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan. Pollan presents case studies that mirror four types of human desires that are reflected in the way that we selectively grow, breed, and genetically engineer our plants. The tulip beauty, marijuana intoxication, the apple sweetness and the potato control.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Botany_of_Desire
Are plants intelligent? Can they solve problems, communicate, and navigate their surroundings? Or are they passive, incapable of independent action or social behavior? Philosophers and scientists have pondered these questions since ancient Greece, most often concluding that plants are unthinking and inert: they are too silent, too sedentary -- just too different from us. Yet discoveries over the past fifty years have challenged these ideas, shedding new light on the extraordinary capabilities and complex interior lives of plants.
In Brilliant Green, Stefano Mancuso, a leading scientist and founder of the field of plant neurobiology, presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world. Combining a historical perspective with the latest in plant science, Mancuso argues that, due to cultural prejudices and human arrogance, we continue to underestimate plants. In fact, they process information, sleep, remember, and signal to one another -- showing that, far from passive machines, plants are intelligent and aware. Through a survey of plant capabilities from sight and touch to communication, Mancuso challenges our notion of intelligence, presenting a vision of plant life that is more sophisticated than most imagine.
Plants have much to teach us, from network building to innovations in robotics and man-made materials -- but only if we understand more about how they live. Part botany lesson, part manifesto, Brilliant Green is an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom.

Financial support for the translation of this book has been provided by SEPS: Segretariato Europeo Per Le Pubblicazioni Scientifiche. - See more at: islandpress.org/book/brilliant-green#sthash.ThqSqcvm.dpuf
The stories range from the true story of Johnny Appleseed to Pollan's first-hand research with sophisticated marijuana hybrids in Amsterdam to the paradigm-shifting possibilities of genetically engineered potatoes. Pollan also discusses the limitations of monoculture agriculture: specifically, the adoption in Ireland of a single breed of potato (the Lumper) made the Irish vulnerable to a fungus to which it had no resistance, resulting in the Irish Potato Famine. The Peruvians from whom the Irish had gotten the potato grew hundreds of varieties, so their exposure to any given pest was slight.
Flowers can also be used to convey a message, and to share our feelings. Flowers, similar to colours are often used to convey a message, or to deliver a warning to us.Flowers and plant life have a wide range of uses from sustenance, to medicine, to gestures of affection and almost everything in between.Plant life converts carbon monoxide to oxygen, and without plants, we could not exist in our present human form.As well as traditional and modern medicines, essences and oils extracted from plant life are used for aroma therapy healing practices and the like.Plants extracts and essences are used in many Wiccan rituals.These uses of plants are valid and essential but, they are only the beginning of our understanding of the nature of plant life.
Cosmic Energy Renewal
Mostly, we attempt to obtain cosmic energy from others, either through conflict wherein we take another's cosmic energy, or through providing assistance to others who give us their cosmic energy.Cosmic energy obtained from others is short lived, and unless we can link with a partner, or a series of partners who we can dominate and draw cosmic energy from permanently, we are soon looking for another opportunity to obtain cosmic energy from others.There are many natural sources of cosmic energy which we can, and do draw upon, often unaware that we do so. We do not need to obtain energy from others, and when we discontinue seeking to obtain energy from others, we lose any desire for conflict, in any guise.One excellent and readily available source of cosmic energy is plant life. Being attached to the earth, plants draw cosmic energy directly from the earth. We are able to draw cosmic energy from plant life, which is why we will often return from spending time in a garden feeling renewed and 'up'.When we draw cosmic energy from plant life, we are assisting the plant life to renew their cosmic energy so that instead of a relatively stagnant amount of cosmic energy residing with the plant, a constant stream of renewed energy passes through the plant. This is why some people seem to have a 'green thumb', they draw energy through the plant life in their gardens.
Fairies.
Fairies have long been the subject of fantasy and debate. Fairies have been photographed and investigated, and fairies have been discounted by sceptics.Fairies have been said to have special powers, and to inhabit realms such as 'middle earth'. Fairies have been seen in dreams and reality. Fairies have been witnessed by children and adults, both intoxicated and sober.The key to understanding the truth of the existence of fairies is to consider the common denominator which is prevalent in most tales of fairies, which is the connection between fairies and plant life.There are many who know that fairies reside 'at the bottom of their garden'. Fairies do reside at the bottom of gardens, every garden.Just as we, and every living thing has a physical body and a spirit body, so too do plants. The spirit bodies of those in human form have been witnessed on astral travels, and have been labelled when unattached to a physical body as ghosts or spirits. The spirit bodies of plant life have been witnessed on many occasions, sometimes with acceptance, and other times with disbelief. The spirit bodies of plant life, have been labelled Fairies.Fairies are no different to any other spirits. Fairies exist on the spirit plane, and fairies are occasionally witnessed, more often than we realise, by those of us in a physical existence.
The Meaning Of Flowers.
Flowers can also be used to convey a message, and to share our feelings. Flowers, similar to colours are often used to convey a message, or to deliver a warning to us.We can receive a message in this way either when we encounter a flower on the physical plane, or when we encounter a flower on the spirit plane, in our 'dreams'.If we encounter a broken flower, the meaning of the flower will usually be reversed.

www.eaglespiritministry.com/works/flower.htm
The intelligent Plant. That is the title of a recent article in The New Yorker — and new research is showing that plants have astounding abilities to sense and react to the world.The Intelligent Plant. That is the title of a recent article in The New Yorker — and new research is showing that plants have astounding abilities to sense and react to the world.
This story is based on a radio interview. Listen to the full interview.But can a plant be intelligent? Some plant scientists insist they are — since they can sense, learn, remember and even react in ways that would be familiar to humans.Michael Pollan, author of such books as "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "The Botany of Desire," wrote the New Yorker piece about the developments in plant science. He says for the longest time, even mentioning the idea that plants could be intelligent was a quick way to being labeled "a whacko." But no more, which might be comforting to people who have long talked to their plants or played music for them.The new research, he says, is in a field called plant neurobiology — which is something of a misnomer, because even scientists in the field don't argue that plants have neurons or brains."They have analagous structures," Pollan explains. "They have ways of taking all the sensory data they gather in their everyday lives ... integrate it and then behave in an appropriate way in response. And they do this without brains, which, in a way, is what's incredible about it, because we automatically assume you need a brain to process information."And we assume you need ears to hear. But researchers, says Pollan, have played a recording of a caterpillar munching on a leaf to plants — and the plants react. They begin to secrete defensive chemicals — even though the plant isn't really threatened, Pollan says. "It is somehow hearing what is, to it, a terrifying sound of a caterpillar munching on its leaves."

Pollan says plants have all the same senses as humans, and then some. In addition to hearing, taste, for example, they can sense gravity, the presence of water, or even feel that an obstruction is in the way of its roots, before coming into contact with it. Plant roots will shift direction, he says, to avoid obstacles.So what about pain? Do plants feel? Pollan says they do respond to anesthetics. "You can put a plant out with a human anesthetic. ... And not only that, plants produce their own compounds that are anesthetic to us." But scientists are reluctant to go as far as to say they are responding to pain.How plants sense and react is still somewhat unknown. They don't have nerve cells like humans, but they do have a system for sending electrical signals and even produce neurotransmitters, like dopamine, serotonin and other chemicals the human brain uses to send signals."We don't know why they have them, whether this was just conserved through evolution or if it performs some sort of information processing function. We don't know. There's a lot we don't know," Pollan says.And chalk up another human-like ability — memory. Pollan describes an experiment done by animal biologist Monica Gagliano. She presented research that suggests the mimosa pudica plant can learn from experience. And, Pollan says, merely suggesting a plant could learn was so controversial that her paper was rejected by 10 scientific journals before it was finally published.Mimosa is a plant, which looks something like a fern, that collapses its leaves temporarily when it is disturbed. So Gagliano set up a contraption that would drop the mimosa plant, without hurting it. When the plant dropped, as expected, its leaves collapsed. She kept dropping the plants every five to six seconds."After five or six drops, the plants would stop responding, as if they'd learned to tune out the stimulus as irrelevent," Pollan says. "This is a very important part of learning — to learn what you can safely ignore in your environment."Maybe the plant was just getting worn out from all the dropping? To test that, Gagliano took the plants that had stopped responding to the drops and shook them instead. "They would continue to collapse," Pollan says. "They had made the distinction that [dropping] was a signal they could safely ignore. And what was more incredible is that [Gagliano] would retest them every week for four weeks and, for a month, they continued to remember their lesson."That's as far out as Gagliano tested. It's possible they remember even longer. Conversely, Pollan points out, bees that are given a similar dishabituation test forget what they've learned in as little as 48 hours.Pollan says not everyone accepts that what Gagliano describes is really learning. In fact, there are many critics with many alternative theories for explaining the response the plants are having. Still ..."Plants can do incredible things. They do seem to remember stresses and events, like that experiment. They do have the ability to respond to 15 to 20 environmental variables," Pollan says. "The issue is, is it right to call it learning? Is that the right word? Is it right to call it intelligence? Is it right, even, to call what they are conscious. Some of these plant neurobiologists believe that plants are conscious — not self-conscious, but conscious in the sense they know where they are in space ... and react appropriately to their position in space."Pollan says there is no agreed definition of intelligence. "Go to Wikipedia and look up intelligence. They despair of giving you an answer. They basically have a chart where they give you nine different definitions. And about half of them depend on a brain — they refer to abstract reasoning or judgment."And the other half merely refer to a problem-solving ability. And that's the kind of intelligence we are talking about here.... So intelligence may well be a property of life. And our difference from these other creatures may be a matter of difference of degree rather than kind. We may just have more of this problem-solving ability and we may do it in different ways."Pollan says that really freaks people out — "that the line between plants and animals might be a little softer than we traditionally think of it as."And he suggests that plants may be able to teach humans a thing or two, such as how to process information without a central command post like a brain.

Check out this video of Michael Pollan discussing time-lapse photography of bean plants looking very purposeful.
www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-09/new-research-plant-intelli...

so I grew up I am? For ten years, a lively debate on the intelligence of plants animates the community of biologists of the plant world. Heresy, shout some, truth, say others.
At the head of the latter, Stefano Mancuso, founder of the International Plant Neurobiology Laboratory, confirmed and signed in his latest book, Brilliant Green (Michael Pollan, 2015, not translated): "The most recent studies of the plant world have shown that plants are sensitive (and therefore are endowed with sense), they communicate (with each other and with animals), sleep, remember and can even manipulate other species. They can be described as intelligent. "Among researchers interviewed on the subject, the discomfort is systematic. Already in 2008, Thirty-six European and North American biologists signed a manifesto published in Trends in Plant Science, led by the Italian Amedeo Alpi (University of Pisa), to denounce the use of "Neurobiology" which under -entendrait intelligence of plants.
It must be said that trauma has long shaken plant biologists. In 1973 the release of the book The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird (The Secret Life of Plants, Robert Laffont ,.
www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2016/02/29/un-vif-debat-s...

Taken in: France / Île-de-France / Paris / Nationale-Deux Moulins (show map)

Taken on: March 3, 2017

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