On Plant Intelligence

These strange jack-in-the-pulpit seedheads with their arms thrown up in the air has me thinking about the book I am reading: Have you read The Light Eaters yet? I am very close to finishing. It is mind-bending in the best possible way. I wanted to summarize it for you in my own words…but it has gotten late, so I am letting ChatGPT do it for you:  “The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth” byZoë Schlanger is a thought-provoking exploration into the complex and often hidden world of plant intelligence. It is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.”

If you like these kind of deep reads, I recommend this book.

Jack-in-the pulpit seedheads (Arisaema triphyllum)