The wisdom of plants
La Nacion, one of the leading newspapers in Argentina, published , and Rocío was one of the plant biologists interviewed for the piece. She was asked, are plants intelligent? And here's what she said (in Spanish and then translated into English):
“¿Si las plantas son inteligentes? Pero por supuesto. El tema para mí es cuánto más inteligentes son que nosotros. Imaginate ser una planta: estás en un sitio casi inmóvil, el alimento tiene que venir hacia vos y debés elaborar estrategias para aprovechar el que haya. Incluso si estás en un sitio ideal, con nutrientes, luz y agua, y necesitás ir hacia tus compañeros para la reproducción, o atraer un polinizador. Es más, abandonás a la progenie cuando recién empieza a crecer. Las plantas tienen mucho desafíos y aun así existen desde hace más de mil millones de años. Se originaron en océanos y después pasaron a medios terrestres, hace 500 millones de años. Cambiaron la atmósfera y las condiciones de suelo y ahí siguen.”
"Are plants intelligent? But of course. The question for me is how much more intelligent they are than us. Imagine being a plant: you're stuck in one spot, immobile, food has to come to you, and you've got to figure out strategies to take advantage of what you've got. And even if you're in a perfect spot, with nutrients, light and water, you've still got to connect with your fellow plants to reproduce, or attract pollinators. And more than this, you leave your offspring by themselves soon after they are born. Plants have many challenges and they've still existed for over a billion years. They originated in the ocean, and then they came onto land 500 million years ago. They changed the atmosphere and the soil and they're still here."
Brava, Rocío, for a wonderful piece of scicomm!