Green Friends Among Us
Installment 1
This is installment one of a series of posts sharing weird and thought-provoking science. Just the kind of information that ends up giving spawning yet another idea for a novel.
This first post started with a search concerning weeds that look like tomato plants. Yes, nature has ‘imitation’ tomato plants. The jury is still out on whether the healthy tomato-ish plants that sprouted in my seedling pots are true tomatoes. I didn’t find the answer to that question however I came upon an article on the National Public Radio (npr) website. Yeah, I know it’s a website but it’s ‘radio’. That my friends is all I know about the ‘npr’. I’m not affiliated with or endorsing or in alignment necessarily with anything they post or stand for. Phew…that was a lot of words to say, don’t take offense at the starting point of this post.
Back to the point, the article is titled: “Can Plants Smell Other Plants?” (see link below). The article talks about the ‘dodder’ plant which ‘smells’ tomato plants. I’ve included a video that shows the sneaky dodder plant sniffing out the tomato.
Can Plants Smell Other Plants? Apparently They Can : Krulwich Wonders… : NPR
Just watching the dodder plant wrap itself (last 5 secs or so of the video) around the stem of the tomato is creeeeeepy. Lovely fodder for Sci-Fi but of course, man eating plants have been done before so, leaving it there. The article referenced a book by Daniel Chamovitz (link below).
What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses: Updated and Expanded Edition – Link to Amazon here.
It’s a must read for any plant lover but for those who have a free conscience concerning the treatment of plants, I suggest, don’t read this book. Life won’t be the same.
I’ve always held to the idea that plants are like aliens living among us. I mean that in the sense that they experience life in a different way than we do, but they do experience. Daniel’s book reinforces this thought. I came to this conclusion not because I’m a nutty naturalist (well maybe a little) but because I noted how certain weeds change their appearance based on what happens to their environment.
Example, there were weeds in my garden, grass of some kind, growing in the middle of my flowers. I pull them out (I think) and they grew back but this time they matched the height of the flowers, so it took me a minute to recognize them. Those same weeds grow tall, grow mid-height, grow almost flat to the ground. It’s like they know what I’m seeing.
But it’s all science. Beautiful, extraordinary living science.
Confession, I sometimes let weeds grow to full maturity even seeding, just to appreciate their vigor and audacity.
Meanwhile back in the novel writing nodule in my brain, I’m busy cataloguing how this can nourish a budding idea.
I don’t know, what do you think?
I hope you enjoyed this first installment of Science of Sci-Fi. If you did leave a comment and let me know! Till then, Write On! Or Read On! But don’t Weed on! (or at least pause first). Best, Clare
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Clare Graith 