If he were that sort of chap, Prince Charles would be within his rights to deliver a right royal ‘I told you so’.
For in the years since he was roundly mocked for saying he talked to plants – and that they ‘responded’ – evidence has grown that he may have been on to something.
And now it appears plants may be smarter than even the Prince of Wales thought.
According to researchers, plants can count, make decisions, recognise their relatives and even remember events.
For in the years since he was roundly mocked for saying he talked to plants – and that they ‘responded’ – evidence has grown that he may have been on to something. Pictured: Stock photo of houseplants on a window
According to researchers, plants can count, make decisions, recognise their relatives and even remember events. Pictured: A gardener pruning a Hibiscus Plant
And while they may not have a brain, they can learn in a similar way to humans and animals, say scientists.
Professor Umberto Castiello said: ‘Although the idea that plants may behave in a cognitive way may baffle the public, many of us are genuinely amazed by the complexity of plant responses.
‘Evidence is accumulating supporting notions that plants can communicate, remember, decide, and even count – all abilities that one would normally call cognitive if they were observed in animals.’
Professor Castiello said many studies show their cognitive abilities. One found Venus flytraps can ‘count’ the number of steps their prey made.
Scientists observed that the plant trapped prey only when an insect triggered it twice within 20 seconds. This means the plants can remember the first signal for a short time. The reason why plants need to ‘count’ the steps of its prey could be to avoid wasting energy by responding to random raindrops or windblown debris.
Another experiment showed the flowering plant Mimosa pudica can remember being dropped.
The plant was dropped from 6in 60 times in a row and by the end of the experiment it no longer folded its leaves in a defensive response as it realised being dropped from that height would not hurt.
‘The plant “realises” that being dropped is normal,’ Professor Castiello, from the University of Padua in Italy, wrote. ‘More astonishingly, this reflex lasts up to a month which demonstrates the acquisition and expression of a long-lasting memory.’
And shrubs can recognise their kin too as they release more chemicals when planted near their relatives which helps them stave off predators.
It is even thought plants can manipulate competitors when resources are scarce. Plants experiencing a lack of water can share this information with nearby shrubs by sending signals via their roots.
This prompts a nearby plant – its competitor – to start conserving water and this behaviour ultimately benefits both.
Professor Castiello concluded: ‘The question should no longer be if plants are cognitive organisms but how plants make use of their cognitive capacities.’
With the new season of gardening among us, there are multiple beginners just starting to grow their first plants. Gardening can seem complicated at times, but luckily, there are an abundance of tricks and tips to help you get started!
1. Homemade Weed Killer
To create your own weed killer, the recipe calls for 1 gallon of white vinegar, 1 cup of table salt, and 1 tbsp of liquid dish soap. No one really has time to pull weeds all day. Chances are, you already have these ingredients lying around your kitchen, so whipping up a batch of weed killer wouldn’t take too long.
–Be careful because this solution can be harmful to grass as well, so it’s best used in sidewalk cracks, landscape borders, and other areas with unwanted grass or flowers, and not spots where the spray may be harmful to your other plants. Also, if you spray the weeds when they are exposed to direct sunlight, it works its magic a lot faster.
2. Dry Creek Bed Garden
To break up a large portion of the yard, consider a dry creek bed for added visual interest. It not only looks fabulous, but it’s also great for landscape drainage and redirecting rain water on a slope. With the added benefit of the creek being low maintenance.
3. Homemade Rain Barrel
Rain barrels are easy to assemble and only take around 30 minutes or less to build. Collect the rain directly from your gutter spouts, and use it to water your garden, lawn, and potted plants. You will just need a heavy duty trash can, a drill, a pair of pliers, and a few other basic tools. There are even kits The Rain Barrel Depot can provide you as well.
4. Keep The Pets Out
Animals, especially cats, view the entire garden as one huge pooping station. This can cause you to pull out your hair from all the little surprises found around your garden. To stop these pesky little friends from pooping everywhere, strategically place a few plastic forks around your plants to deter them from destroying your fresh herbs, fruits, and veggies.
5. Rubbermaid Container Garden
If you have the lack of a backyard, do not worry! Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Using Rubbermaid storage containers, fill the bottom with packing peanuts and a layer of garden fabric so that they are easy to move. This method could even work on an apartment balcony.
6. Give Your Garden A Calcium Boost
Just like grinding your food makes it easier to digest, grinding eggshells makes it easy for your garden to absorb the calcium egg shells provide. Acting like a nutritious snack or breakfast for your garden!
7. Epsom Salt in the Garden
Epsom salt has a lot of uses. Epsom salt is rich in magnesium and sulfate which are crucial to plant life. For potted plants, mix a couple of tablespoons of the salt into your watering can once or twice a month. Even sprinkle it in your garden’s soil to help your seeds germinate better. Tomatoes and peppers benefit the most because they both tend to have a magnesium deficiency. Add a tablespoon or so in with the soil when first planting, and then sprinkle more into the soil once mature.
8. Fertilize Your Plants
Be sure to save your vegetable cooking water! The water has a lot of nutrients that your garden thrives on. Wait for the water to cool down first, and then use it to “fertilize” your garden or potted plants. This makes for a green and happy garden! I don’t recommend drinking the water or pouring the water over your plants while the water is still boiling. You may accidentally cook your plants!
9. Pinch Your Herbs
Pinch the upper portions of your herb plant stems off to encourage new leaf growth. Herbs have a natural instinct to stay alive so when they are pinched, they send a signal to the dormant leaf buds to grow.
10. Pot-in-Pot Landscaping
I don’t know about you, but I’m not a huge fan of redoing the landscaping every time the seasons change. Dig a hole for your seasonal plants and fill it with an empty plastic pot. Now you can just drop your seasonal flowers in there and easily switch them out once they’re ready to retire.
11. Line Pots with Coffee Filters
This is a wonderful method for indoor plants. Most of the time when you water indoor plants in the sink, you can lose a lot of the soil down the drain. Not to mention the mess it makes under the pot. Coffee filters allow the water to still drain, but keep the dirt contained.
12. Eggshell Starters Get your garden started early by planting your seeds in eggshells indoors before the weather permits outdoor growth. There are several reasons why eggshells are the perfect pot for this, but the biggest is that they are cheap. Or if you own chickens then the eggs are obviously free. Eggs are full of calcium to give your seedlings that extra boost and easy to plant in the garden when ready.
13. Roses in Spuds Just a quick tip, rose bushes or any bush, can be re-planted just by having the trimmings of the previous bush you want to grow from. Push the bottom ends of your rose trimmings into a small potato to help it retain moisture as it develops roots.
14. Stop Invasive Plants
Cut the bottom off of a plastic pot and bury it in the ground! Use it for invasive plants that tend to grow too large and take over your garden. This simple garden technique limits the growth of the root system, giving you better control over the size of the plant once it reaches maturity, and also protects the plants around it. This method is great if you’re planning on growing blackberries.
15. Plastic Pot Watering System
Place a sink pot in the middle of your garden to create a well for easier and deeper root watering. This is especially helpful for squash. As the roots mature, they get deeper and deeper into the ground’s soil, making it harder for the water to reach in a dry climate.
16. DIY Mini Greenhouse Get your seedlings off to a good start with their very own little greenhouse! The bottom 3/4 part of a plastic soda bottle makes for the perfect little dome to cover your little pots with. This is also a great way to get the kiddos interested in gardening.
There you have it, 16 tricks of the trade for gardening. Good luck out there in the dirt!
We all know how intricate are the relationships between a single tree and the forms of life that live with it, and around it. But why are trees so important to human beings who are after all–as forms of life–so distinct and different from trees? Though distinctive and different, human beings are part of the same heritage of life.
Trees and forests are important for deep psychological reasons. In returning to the forest, we are returning to the womb not in psychological terms but in cosmological terms. We are returning to the source of our origin. We are entering communion with life at large. The existence of the forests is so important because they enable us to return to the source of our origin. They provide for us a niche in which our communion with all life can happen.
The unstructured environments which we need for our sanity and for our mental health, as well as for the moments of silent brooding without which we cannot truly reach our deeper selves, should not be limited to forests only. Rugged mountains and wilderness areas provide the same nexus for being at one with the glory of the elemental forces of life. Wilderness areas are live-giving in a fundamental sense, nourishing the core of our being. This core of our being is sometimes called the soul.
To understand the nature of the human being is ultimately a metaphysical journey; in the very least it is a transphysical journey. Transphysical translated into the Greek language means metaphysical. The metaphysical meaning of forests has to do with the quality of spaces the forests provide for the tranquility of our souls. Those are the spaces of silence, the spaces of sanity, the spaces of spiritual nourishment–within which our being is healed and at peace.
We all know how soul-destroying and destructive to our inner being modern cities can be; and actually are. The comparison alone between the modus of a technological city and the modus of a wilderness area informs us sufficiently about the metaphysical meaning of the spaces of forests, of the mountains, of the marshlands.
Though the trees are immensely important to our psychic well-being, not every tree possesses the same energy and meaning. The manicured French parks and the primordial Finnish forests are different entities. In the manicured French parks we witness the triumph of the Cartesian logic and of Euclidean geometry, while in the Finnish forests, immensely brooding and surrounded by irregular, female-like lakes we witness the triumph of natural geometry.
What is natural and what is artificial is nowadays difficult to determine. However, when we find ourselves among the plastic interiors of an airport, with its cold brutal walls and lifeless plastic fixtures surrounding us, on the one hand, and within the bosom of a big forest, on the other hand, we know exactly the difference without any ambiguity. In the forest our soul breathes, while in plastic environments our soul suffocates.
The idea that our soul breathes in natural unstructured environments should not be treated as a poetic metaphor. It is a palpable truth. This truth has been recognized on countless occasions, and in many contexts…although usually indirectly and semi-consciously.
Life wants to breathe. We breathe more freely when there are other forms of life which can breathe around us. Old beams made of oak in an old cottage breathe. Those panelings made of wood in the modern flat breathe. And we breathe with them. Those plastic interiors, and those concrete cubicles, and those tower blocks, and those rectilinear cities do not breathe. We find them ‘sterile,’ ‘repulsive,’ ‘depressing.’ Those very adjectives come straight from the core of our beings. And those are not just the reactions of some idosyncratic individuals, but the reactions of all of us, at least a great majority of us.
A plastic interior may be aesthetically pleasing. Yet after a while, our soul finds it uncomfortable, constraining, somewhat crippling. The primordial life in us responds quite unequivocally to our environments. We have to learn to listen carefully to the beat of the primordial life in us, whether we call it instinct, intuition, or the wholistic response. We do respond with great sensitivity to spaces, geometries and forms of life surrounding us. We respond positively to the forms which breathe life for these forms are life-enhancing. Life in us wants to be enhanced and nourished. Hence we want to be in the company of forms that breathe life.
It is therefore very important to dwell in surroundings in which there are forms that can breathe…the wooden beams, the wooden floors. Lucky are the nations that can build houses made of wood…inside and outside. For the wood breathes, changes, decays…as we do. It is also important to have flowers and plants in our living environment. For they breathe. To contemplate a flower for three seconds may be an important journey of solitude, a journey of return to original geometry…which is always renewing. We make these journeys actually rather often, whenever plants and flowers are in our surroundings. But we are rarely aware of what we are doing.
Forests and spirituality are intimately connected. Ancient people knew about this connection and cherished and cultivated it. Their spirit was nourished because their wisdom told them where the true sources of nourishment lay.
The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demand for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life’ s activity; it affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axeman who destroys it.
Buddha
Towards a Spiritual Renewal
We are now reassessing the legacy of the entire technological civilization and what it has done to our souls and our forests. Our problem is no longer how to manage our forests and our lives more efficiently in order to achieve further material progress. We now ask ourselves more fundamental questions: How can we renew ourselves spiritually? What is the path to life that is whole? How can we survive as humane and compassionate beings? How can we maintain our spiritual and cultural heritage?
The wilderness areas, which I call life-giving areas, are important for three reasons, Firstly, they are important as sanctuaries. Various forms of life might not have survived without them.
Secondly, they are important as givers of timber that breathes and out of which will be made beautiful panels and beams that breathe life into our homes.
Thirdly, and most significantly, they are important as human sanctuaries, as places of spiritual, biological and psychological renewal. As the chariot of progress which is the demon of ecological destruction moves on, we wipe out more and more sanctuaries. They disappear under the axe of man, are polluted by plastic environments, are turned into Disneylands.
The rebuilding of sanctuaries is vital for the well-being of our body and the well-being of our soul, for the two act in unison. We have lost the meaning of the Temple (Templum) in now deserted churches.
We have to recreate this meaning from the foundations. We have to re-sacralize the world, for otherwise our existence will be sterile. We live in a disenchanted world. We have to embark on the journey of the re-enchantment of the world. We have to recreate rituals and special ceremonies through which most precious aspects of life are expressed and celebrated.
Forests still inspire us and infuse us with the sense of awe and mystery . . . that is when we have time and the quietness of mind to lose ourselves in them. And here is an important message. Forests may again become sacred enclosures where great rituals of life are performed, and where the celebration of the uniqueness and mystery of life and the universe is taking place. It depends on our wills to make the forests the places of the re-sacralization of the world. The first steps in this direction were taken when by the famous Polish director, Jerzy Grotowski, who has abandoned the theatre in order to make nature and particularly forests the sacred grounds for man’s new communion with the cosmos.We must develop a similar spirit of reverence and empathy for the trees and forests. For they are true sanctuaries.
Epsom salts have been used by many different cultures for hundreds of years. They have a number of different beneficial properties and are used in gardening, household cleaning, and detoxifying the body. These salts are very inexpensive and can be purchased at bulk discounts in garden centers nearly everywhere. Using Epsom salt baths is an advanced detoxification strategy that has remarkable health benefits.
Epsom salt is made up of magnesium and sulfate, which can help improve health in numerous ways. A lack of magnesium—which helps regulate the activity of more than 300 enzymes in the body—can contribute to high blood pressure, hyperactivity, heart problems and other health issues, doctors warn. Sulfate is essential for many biological processes, helping to flush toxins and helping form proteins in joints, brain tissue and mucin proteins.
22 Amazing uses of Epsom salt
Regulate Blood Sugar
Research indicates that raising magnesium levels can promote a healthy heart by improving circulation and lowering blood pressure. It also improves the body’s capacity to use insulin. Magnesium is necessary to sustain calcium levels in the blood.
Sulphates are not easily obtained through the food we eat but are absorbed through the skin. These stimulate the pancreas to make digestive enzymes and assist in detoxifying the body. Epsom Salt flushes toxins and heavy metals from the cells, easing muscle pain and helping the body to eliminate harmful substances.
Detoxification
Epsom salt can assist in eliminating toxins from the body. The magnesium in Epsom salt is required for detoxifying cells. It also helps detox the body of environmental contaminants that can potentially cause ill health.
To enjoy a relaxing detox bath, stir in 1 to 2 cups of Epson salt in a bathtub filled with warm water and soak in it for 10 to 15 minutes, 2 or 3 times a week.
Fade Bruises
To lessen the appearance of bruises, make a compress by soaking a washcloth in cold water mixed with Epsom salt – use two tablespoons per cup – then apply to the skin.
Treats Sunburn
Epsom salt is very soothing for sunburned skin. Its anti-inflammatory properties alleviate mild sunburn irritation like itchiness and pain. It can even help maintain an even skin tone.
To treat sunburned hands and legs, mix 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt in 1 cup of water and store it in a spray bottle. Spray it on the affected area. Leave it on for 10 minutes, then take a bath. Do this several times a week to notice improvement.
Another option is to fill a bathtub with lukewarm water and mix in 1 cup of Epsom salt, stirring thoroughly so the salt crystals dissolve properly. Add a few drops of lavender essential oil and soak in the water for 20 minutes.
Pest control
If you have lawn pests and you’re looking for natural insect control, consider turning to Epsom salt. A spray solution on the lawn can control insects without damaging the grass, and it’s totally nontoxic. Sprinkle some dry Epsom salt to deter slugs and snails.
Fertilizer
Some plants like tons of food, especially roses. Work some Epsom salt into the soil around them to keep them happy, especially during blooming season, when you want them producing beautiful, long-lasting flowers. Palm trees and tomatoes are also big fans of Epsom salt!
Quick bruise treatment
Use a warm compress with Epsom salt to fade the appearance of bruises. They won’t vanish like magic, but they won’t be as large, or as painful. Use a solution of two tablespoons Epsom salt per cup of water for best effect.
Body scrub
After you shower, rub your skin with Epsom salts using circular movements. It removes dead skin cells and leaves skin soft.
Soothe Bug Bites
Dissolve 1/4 cup of Epsom salts in a cup of warm water. Cool the mixture in the refrigerator. Apply with a cotton ball to bug bites to soothe pain and itching.
Remove Splinters
According to the Epsom Salt Council, Epsom salt increases osmotic pressure on the skin, which draws foreign bodies toward the surface. Dissolve one cup of Epsom salt in a tub of water and soak the affected area.
Keep Houseplants Healthy
Add 1-2 tablespoons of Epsom salts per gallon of water to nourish your houseplants.
Relief from muscular pain
An Epsom salts bath can promote detoxification through the skin and they are traditionally used as a soaking agent to bring relief from muscular pain and stiffness.
Improves Digestion
Epsom salt assists in the elimination of harmful toxins and waste products from the body and the digestive system. It also works as a laxative to soften stools, making them easier to pass, and can be used to treat constipation.Dissolve 1 or 2 teaspoons of Epsom salt in 1 cup of warm water and drink it on an empty stomach once a day. When taken internally, Epsom salt can cause some side effects, including gastrointestinal irritation, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Consult your doctor before taking Epsom salt. Do not take it longer than 1 week.
Also, soaking in an Epsom salt bath helps reduce water retention and tummy bloating.
Remedy for colds and flu
Take a hot bath with Epsom salts when you feel you’re catching a cold as it helps the body to fight infection more easily and recover faster.
It helps you sleep better
Epsom salts relaxes the body and helps you sleep better. Take hot baths with Epsom salts in the evening, an hour before sleep. It helps to increase the level of magnesium in the body. Lack of magnesium brings fatigue, stress, heart disease and joint pain. So, fill the tub with warm water and mix it with a cup of Epsom salts and a cup of baking soda and just relax.
Removes feet odor
Keep your feet in warm water with Epsom salts to get rid of odor, pain or heavy legs feeling. Do it for 15-20 minutes as it improves blood circulation, reduce inflammation and soften skin.
For Achy Joints, Bruises and Sprains
Soak in a warm bath with 2 cups of Epsom salts to relieve pain in joints, bruises and sprains.
Remove Burnt Food on Pots and Pans
Overcook that oatmeal? Scrub out your pots and pans with a few tablespoons of Epsom salts, a little soap, and hot water to remove burnt food easily.
Grow Better Flowers, Fruits and Veggies
Whether you’re growing roses or tomatoes, sprinkling a few tablespoons on Epsom salts at the base of your plants can keep them healthy and maximize yield.
Epsom Salt improves nerve function
By regulating electrolytes. Also, calcium is the main conductor for electrical current in the body, and magnesium is necessary to maintain proper calcium levels in the blood
Epsom salt also delivers sulfates
which are extremely difficult to get through food but which readily absorb through the skin. Medical research indicates sulfates are needed for the formation of brain tissue, joint proteins and the mucin proteins that line the walls of the digestive tract. Sulfates also stimulate the pancreas to generate digestive enzymes and help to detoxify the body’s residue of medicines and environmental contaminants.
Sulfates are important for forming brain tissue, joint proteins, stimulates the pancreas, and mucin proteins.
Plants Are Far More Intelligent Than We Ever Assumed
Like higher organisms, plants appear able to make complex decisions. A new study shows that plants may be able to initiate a survival mechanism by aborting their own seeds to prevent parasite infestation.
Plants have previously been shown to draw alternative sources of energy from other plants. Plants influence each other in many ways and they communicate through “nanomechanical oscillations” vibrations on the tiniest atomic or molecular scale or as close as you can get to telepathic communication.
Plants exhibit intelligence with an intrinsic ability to process information from several type of stimuli that allows optimal decisions about future activities in a given environment. Stefano Mancuso from the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology at the University of Florence, Italy, and his colleagues are starting to apply rigorous standards to study plant hearing (Trends in Plant Sciences, vol17, p323). Their preliminary results indicate that corn roots grow towards specific frequencies of vibrations. What is even more surprising is their finding that roots themselves may also be emitting sound waves. For now, though, we have no idea how a plant might produce sound signals let alone how they might detect them.
Scientists from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University of Gottingen have now shown from their investigations on Barberry (Berberis vulgaris), that it is is able to abort its own seeds to prevent parasite infestation.
The results, as reported in a news release, are the first ecological evidence of complex behaviour in plants. They indicate that this species has a structural memory, is able to differentiate between inner and outer conditions as well as anticipate future risks, scientists write in the renowned journal American Naturalist — the premier peer-reviewed American journal for theoretical ecology.
The European barberry or simply Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) is a species of shrub distributed throughout Europe. It is related to the Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) that is native to North America and that has been spreading through Europe for years. Scientists compared both species to find a marked difference in parasite infestation: “a highly specialized species of tephritid fruit fly, whose larvae actually feed on the seeds of the native Barberry, was found to have a tenfold higher population density on its new host plant, the Oregon grape”, reports Dr. Harald Auge, a biologist at the UFZ.
This led scientists to examine the seeds of the Barberry more closely. Approximately 2000 berries were collected from different regions of Germany, examined for signs of piercing and then cut open to examine any infestation by the larvae of the tephritid fruit fly (Rhagoletis meigenii). This parasite punctures the berries in order to lay its eggs inside them. If the larva is able to develop, it will often feed on all of the seeds in the berry. A special characteristic of the Barberry is that each berry usually has two seeds and that the plant is able to stop the development of its seeds in order to save its resources. This mechanism is also employed to defend it from the tephritid fruit fly. If a seed is infested with the parasite, later on the developing larva will feed on both seeds. If however the plant aborts the infested seed, then the parasite in that seed will also die and the second seed in the berry is saved.
When analysing the seeds, the scientists came across a surprising discovery: “the seeds of the infested fruits are not always aborted, but rather it depends on how many seeds there are in the berries”, explains Dr. Katrin M. Meyer, who analysed the data at the UFZ and currently works at the University of Goettingen. If the infested fruit contains two seeds, then in 75 per cent of cases, the plants will abort the infested seeds, in order to save the second intact seed. If however the infested fruit only contains one seed, then the plant will only abort the infested seed in 5 per cent of cases. The data from fieldwork were put into a computer model which resulted in a conclusive picture. Using computer model calculations, scientists were able to demonstrate how those plants subjected to stress from parasite infestation reacted very differently from those without stress. “If the Barberry aborts a fruit with only one infested seed, then the entire fruit would be lost. Instead it appears to ‘speculate’ that the larva could die naturally, which is a possibility. Slight chances are better than none at all”, explains Dr. Hans-Hermann Thulke from the UFZ. “This anticipative behaviour, whereby anticipated losses and outer conditions are weighed up, very much surprised us. The message of our study is therefore that plant intelligence is entering the realms of ecological possibility.”
But how does the Barberry know what is in store for it after the tephritid fruit fly has punctured a berry? It is still unclear as to how the plant processes information and how this complex behaviour was able to develop over the course of its evolution. The Oregon grape that is closely related to the Barberry has been living in Europe for some 200 years with the risk of being infested by the tephritid fruit fly and yet it has not developed any such comparable defence strategy. These new insights shed some light on the underestimated abilities of plants, while at the same time bringing up many new questions.
April McCarthy is a community journalist playing an active role reporting and analyzing world events to advance our health and eco-friendly initiatives.
Plants make us feel good. In fact, other elements of the natural world do also. Why is that?
In a word, it’s “biophilia.” A term coined by social psychologist Erich Fromm in the 1960s, biophilia is our biologically-inherited need to commune with nature. Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, in his book Biophilia defines it as “the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.” In his biophilia hypothesis, Wilson has urged that these connections are imperative for healthy emotional development and wellbeing.¹
When I first heard about biophilia, a mere 24 months ago, it really resonated with me. I had recently learned about Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD)² an unofficial behavioral disorder that stems from the “disconnect” our children have with the natural world. Biophilia certainly explained the challenge of NDD and why it has a profound impact on our future.
