Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Watch your thoughts - your plant could know!

Keep this between ourselves but I always believed that plants know what we're thinking. Now there's scientific evidence lending some validity to my belief based on some recent experiments conducted by scientists in Poland. New research shows that plants "can think and remember," according to a news story published recently. Of course! Any plant caregiver can attest to this. It's just so...logical.

Plants are able to "remember" and "react" to information contained in light, according to the researchers. In their experiment, scientists showed that light shone on one leaf caused the whole plant to respond. Duh! If you were snoozing or the plant equivalent and somebody opened up flashlight beam or beacon on you, you'd react too! Unlike humans plants can't scream out: "get that stupid light out'ta or off"a my leaves or else!" I mean, plants can't really do much in the way of defending themselves against - well - anything. One can only imagine plants horror upon sensing lawn trimming equipment approaching and knowing the ensuing carnage to follow. But I digress.

"We shone the light only on the bottom of the plant (the plant used was the arabidopsis specie) and we observed changes in the upper part," explained Professor Stanislaw Karpinski from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland, who led this research. "And the changes proceeded when the light was off... This was a complete surprise."

It shouldn't be. What else could a plant do in the way of a warning to the upper leaf level that light was approaching. The entire experiment must have had the same effect as a flashing lighthouse beacon.

Seems that plants have the capacity to relay a message to all the leaves that a dose of light is imminent. There is no mention in the piece the exact reason for conducting this type of experiment but perhaps humans have a lot in common with plants. In his previous work, Professor Karpinski found that chemical signals could be passed throughout whole plants - allowing them to respond to and survive changes and stresses in their environment.

As a plant caregiver to numerous plants over the years, some successfully and some not-so-successfully, I've always had this feeling that plants decide whether to thrive or even live based on their like or dislike for the person giving them their basic necessities. Caregivers that frequently neglect to give them water for example or place them in a drafty corner with little light, are reprimanded by the plants by dropping their leaves or a not dead-but-not-quite-alive appearance, conversely, people who talk to their plants with praise and feed them vitamins are rewarded with growth and new leaves. Then again, it's just my opinion for what it's worth and heaven knows I've had many plants that have gone-to-the-composter-in-the-sky over the years.

"This requires an appraisal of the situation and an appropriate response - that's a form of intelligence," concluded Professor Christine Foyer, a plant scientist from the University of Leeds.
Of course - I could have told them that.