Helen Erwin asked Sue Burke:

I would love to learn more about plant communication on earth. Did your inspiration come from our own plants? How different is earth botany compared to PAX?

Sue Burke Hello Helen,

Plants on Earth communicate with each other a lot. Here’s an article in Smithsonian Magazine about communication among trees:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...
I also read and highly recommend the book mentioned in the article: “The Hidden Life of Trees,” by Peter Wohlleben. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

The inspiration for the book came from my own plants. I have a lot of houseplants, and I caught a couple of vines attacking other plants. I began to do research, and I discovered that plants can be aggressive to each other and employ some amazing strategies. They actively respond to their environment.

There’s really only one difference between botany on Earth and Pax. Pax plants have nervous systems, and they can make more conscious decisions and communicate with more complexity. On Earth, plants do send information within themselves, but it moves from one cell to another through no special route. A specific message, such as an attack by a specific kind of beetle, can take hours to get up and down a tree.

Otherwise, the plants on Pax have the same capabilities as plants on Earth – including the desire of fruit trees and plants to have animals eat their fruit and spread their seeds.

flag