{"id":895,"date":"2015-05-24T15:16:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T22:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=895"},"modified":"2015-05-24T15:16:46","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T22:16:46","slug":"the-language-of-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=895","title":{"rendered":"The Language of Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_896\" style=\"width: 139px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/forest-scene.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-896\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-896\" title=\"forest scene\" src=\"http:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/forest-scene-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Forest Scene\" width=\"129\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/forest-scene-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/forest-scene.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 129px) 100vw, 129px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-896\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Tony Eppstein<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Have you ever wondered whether trees talk to each other about what\u2019s going on in the forest? Can they show compassion or motherly love? Do they team up to ward off an attack?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Recent research has shown that plants communicate using an electrochemical \u201clanguage.\u201d Taking a break from exploring my old black filing cabinet, I\u2019d like to share a poem about this discovery. It\u2019s from my new collection, <em><a title=\"Reviews of Earthward\" href=\"http:\/\/www.maureen-eppstein.com\/mve_earthward_reviews.html\" target=\"_blank\">Earthward<\/a><\/em>, available from <a title=\"Finishing Line Press website\" href=\"https:\/\/finishinglinepress.com\" target=\"_blank\">Finishing Line Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Language of Plants<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We who move about are at a loss.<br \/>\nWe do not know what words to use<br \/>\nfor speech that has no metaphor<br \/>\nin the human tongue.<br \/>\nWe have ways to speak of learning,<br \/>\nwords for memory, decision-making words.<br \/>\nWe speak of synapses of neurons in our brains,<br \/>\nname the organs that receive our senses\u2014<br \/>\nears, eyes and noses, taste buds, fingertips\u2014<br \/>\nwords all based on human forms.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The standing-still ones<br \/>\nmessage their pheromones into the air:<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>Aphid invasion. Deploy toxin defenses.<br \/>\n<em> Send for the predator wasp to counter-attack.<\/em><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><em><\/em><\/em>Roots zing with electrochemical charge<br \/>\nas through their internet\u2014<br \/>\na mycorrhizal tangle of yellow threads\u2014<br \/>\nthey share resources with their kin,<br \/>\nand even with neighbors of other ilk:<em><\/em><em><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>Fir borrows summer sugar from birch,<br \/>\n<em> pays it back in the time of barren twigs.<\/em><\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p>We need new definitions to embrace<br \/>\nthe beings who feed on light<br \/>\nnot in some alien galaxy<br \/>\nbut close at hand:<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>Does intelligence mean to have a brain<br \/>\n<em> or problem-solve?<\/em><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><em><\/em><\/em>New ways of standing in a bean patch<br \/>\nor a forest grove<br \/>\nin awe and wild surmise at all<br \/>\nthis human brain can not yet comprehend.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Have you ever wondered whether trees talk to each other about what\u2019s going on in the forest? Can they show compassion or motherly love? Do they team up to ward off an attack? Recent research has shown that plants communicate using an electrochemical \u201clanguage.\u201d Taking a break from exploring my old black filing cabinet, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,184,5],"tags":[270,404,269],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":907,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}