How do plants communicate using sound? How do they remember previous stimuli that have proven not to be threat, when at first they seemed like one? Where is the memory encoded considering they have no brain? What are the implications for biology of plant memory?

In this episode we cover the ground breaking topics in plant cognition studies of: plant intelligence, behaviour, memory and communication. The type of experiments presented here have never really been done before, because there has always been an assumption in plant science that the cellular cognition that all living cells have, relies solely on light, touch or chemical interactions; so it doesn’t really permit for plant behaviour, memory and consciousness. So with my guest today, the first scientist to bypass the assumptions and try these tests, we’re going to discuss her experiments with plants; that clearly show not only basic memory and the corresponding updated behaviour based on that memory, but even pavlovian memory, i.e. associative memory that requires arbitrary stimuli to take on meaning to the plant. Obviously all of this has massive implications for distributed memory and memory beyond brains. We’re also going to get into plant medicine and other indigenous approaches to connecting with plant consciousness; and what plant communication and biophilia in general might do for our relationship to the natural world as we face imminent biosphere collapse.

My guest is of course, the research associate professor of Evolutionary Ecology at several universities in Australia, Monica Gagliano. She’s published over 60 scientific papers, across the fields of Ecology, Plant Cognition, Plant Communications and Marine Ecology.

She is also the author of the books “The Language of Plants: Science, Philosophy and Literature”,  and the highly celebrated,“Thus Spoke the Plant, A remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters”.

What we discuss:

00:00  Intro

05:00 The consensus on Plant intelligence & communication.

09:20 The difference between reacting and responding in cognition.

10:00 Bio-acoustic communication between plants.

21:07 Possible methods for plants to percieve sound.

22:00 Response to gravity may be similar.

23:30 Her plant memory experiment with Mimosa.

27:15 ‘Habituation’ learning: screening out non-useful stimuli.

32:15 The connection between hardship and accelerated adaptive learning.

37:50 Her ‘Pavlovian’ associative memory experiment with peas.

46:10 The Implications of plant memory for modern biology. 

49:25 Where is memory stored without a nervous system?

52:30 Monica’s ethical crisis in animal studies.

01:00:00 ‘Pavlovian’ associative memory experiment with peas.

01:01:30 ‘Dieta’, amazonian plant communication practice.

01:05:00 Shamanic interface with plant wisdom, particularly for healing.

01:08:00 Reductionist materialist pushback is representative of the colonial history of abuse of nature.

01:11:00 Indigenous science and a new book in the making.

References:

Monica Gagliano, “Thus Spoke the Plant, A remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters”.

Gagliano, Manusco & Robert, “Towards Understanding Plant Bioacoustics” paper