I See Plants
Last year Operación Atacama seized over a thousand cacti that had been stolen from the Chilean dessert, shipped to Greece, smuggled into Italy, and would have been sold to collectors for $500 - $1500 per specimen. (1) Last July in South Africa another seizure was made of over ten thousand of this little dumpling shaped succulent pictured above. (2) In the black market for illegal plants, the demand for rare succulents is surpassed only by the demand for orchids and timber. The billion dollar industry of plant poaching rarely receives the attention it deserves, in part because of our plant blindness.
Botanists coined this term in the late 90s to refer to how human thinking relegates plants to the background as an unfeeling green mass that is meant to serve animals. We are much more likely to empathize with and protect magnificent animals that move and have faces, rather than thorny desert organisms that may take hundreds of years to reach maturity. It was only in 2008 that US law caught up to the idea that plants are wildlife too, amending laws meant to protect animals to include wild plants as well. (3)
But wait… how can we be blind to plants when they are everywhere? Gardening is the number one hobby in the US, we put fresh cut flowers and potted plants in our homes, and we pay large sums of money for essential oils, perfumes and medicinal supplements derived from plants. This paradox hasn’t escaped the scientific community. We love plants that serve us as food, medicine, or adornment, and it’s fairly easy to domesticate them, but it is harder to think of them as intelligent creatures that belong in their own communities and are essential actors in their ecosystems.
Our plant blindness effects both conservation efforts and scientific research. For example, in 2011 plants, like this endangered ghost orchid, made up 57% of the US endangered species list, but they received only 4% of the federal funding set aside for endangered species. (4) Meanwhile, the number of undergraduate degrees in botany has been on a steady decline for over 30 years, which means that we are missing out on potential discoveries in the lab. (5)
The good news is that plant blindness is not universal to human societies. Indigenous cultures tend to develop “a close and meaningful relationship to plants,” (6) so we can certainly change our hierarchical perspective of animals over plants. Scientists emphasize that to do this we need to highlight the similarities between humans and plants, as opposed to the differences. For example, both humans and plants react to temperature changes with stress. We need sunlight just like plants do, and the roots of plants transmit information with electrical impulses, much like our brains. (7)
Children instinctively know that animals have feelings, but they learn much later that plants are alive too. We need to spend more time observing plants, interacting with them, and teaching our little ones about them. Researchers also emphasize that collaborations between artists and scientists can help encourage empathy with less well-known species. So perhaps we should shift our work from ferns and sunflowers to finding the beauty in plants like this ancient welwitschia that can live for 3000 years and survive a decade of drought! For now we would like to recommend the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. She is an indigenous botanist that just might be able to reorient your relationship to plants.
We can offer you the story of our favorite plant that's not really a plant- giant kelp. This marine wonder doesn't have a root system, it absorbs its nutrients directly from the water. It is a protist- like other algae, but it functions much like a plant would. Kelp photosynthesizes its energy, provides food and habitat, and absorbs carbon.
Take 10% off your order (Until Dec 31st) with the code ISEEPLANTS and spread the plant love this holiday season.
Cheers everyone!
Sara and Cesar