As if Alert Gardeners Didn't Know....

Plants can choose! Well, they choose in more limited ways than we can, because, except for Tillies and orchids, they are stuck in the ground.

Not so stuck??

So when a competitive plant muscles into their patch, they can choose to deal with the resulting shade by becoming more shade tolerant, have a growth spurt and take the new guy's sunshine, or creep away (non-palm grasses, gingers, and many others can grow north, south, east, or west, rather than up or down like a tree). This is the equivalent of fight or flight in mammals, I suppose. Want to read more? Here it is in Science Daily:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171221122316.htm

This makes me wonder what they choose with, exactly. We simian lifeforms are awfully brain-o-centric. Do plants have some sort of distributed consciousness? I'd like to know!

To all my readers, all over the world, Happy 2018! I know we all hope it will be a better, brighter, more peaceful year than 2017!

Dahlia on Velvet, MRobb