What is agency? And when will we admit plants have it too?
News of the world environment
NEWSLETTER | MAY 3, 2024
Plant Wise
PICTURE A TALL jamun tree (Java plum, Syzygium cumini) growing in a busy urban neighborhood in an Indian city. It is summer and time for the jamun to bear fruit — a predictable, long-term behavior. The blazing summer has unfortunately brought a drought to this semi-arid urbanscape, an unpredictable disruption that could either pass quickly or affect the tree for a prolonged period. Underground concrete structures and tarmac roads add layers of restriction to the tree’s root expansion decisions. Between energy expended to bear fruit and environmental pressures like drought, the tree becomes vulnerable to invasion by herbivores and parasites. The jamun tree must actively contend with immediate threats, manage resources amid short- and medium-term pressures, and balance the evolutionary pull to reproduce. How does the jamun do it?
The jamun may decide to invest in growing its roots to power through concrete and soil in search of water, or it may forgo fruiting in response to the drought and reproduce when conditions improve. Each of these decisions has consequences that determine resource allocation, fruiting, and growth. But they are decisions. Indications of agency.
Agency — the capacity to act with intent — has long been considered an exclusively human trait. But, argue Krishnapriya Tamma and Samuel John, perhaps it’s time to revisit some of our long-held assumptions about that.
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Image by Michelle Francisca Lee
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