2026/05/22 by Luiza Teixeira-Costa · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Environmental, Ecological, and Cultural Studies #History of Science and Medicine #Philosophy and History of Science
paper · pdf · doi:10.3197/whppp.63876246815926
openalex publication_date 2026/05/22 · openalex created_date 2026/05/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/24
The recognition of plants as intelligent beings is as much in vogue now as it was at the turn of the twentieth century, when the first experimental results showing volitional and sentient behaviour in plants were publicised through books and magazines.The shock of these results and their potential implications, that plants could have agency and even desires, took a strong hold of people's imaginations.Soon, the realisation that plants are capable of movement, perception and communication instigated a profusion not only of further scientific work, but also of literary and, later, cinematic productions.These observations also served to rupture the once hermetic boundaries between science and fiction.Indeed, on more than one occasion, works of plant fiction were published as fact, generating astonished