OG Book Club: Botany of Desire

[ReikoX]

The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World

by Michael Pollan

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

This book is how I prefer to look at my practice of giving away free seeds. The plant’s desire is simply to spread their genes far and wide. By making seeds and literally spreading them far and wide, I am clearly doing what the plant desires. The philosophical question is, am I doing this of my own free will, or is the plant guiding me in this process? I like to believe the latter is the case, that I am helping the plant fulfil it’s greatest desires. When I see sinsemilla flowers, I see a plant that is screaming to me that it wants pollen. When I see the seeds getting grown out, I get the same joy as seeing one of my children grow up.

What are some of the ways you feel plants are controlling you?

[blendmedmedman]

from getting seeds to pop, to growing the buds and to get seed, the plants know i promise you,
they live, they appreciate the love you give, they give back too. the plant controls a lot of things through small waves even dull ones omit from the seed, can you hear them cause if you listen they will call you. if you hear them they will tell it is time to pop them, control they will.
your plants guide you, maybe not to the perfect harvest each time but they are there, trust the plant because it tells you whats wrong and sometimes if you do not listen, they show you in signs like ph and deficiencies. every un-seeded flower wants you to put pollen on her, she want you to, so why dont you. for the love of the plant we continue forward with the guidance of the plant ,
keep reading cause you got me thinking

[Gugumelo]

Exciting author description.
Happy plants their best.
The Secret Life of Plants is a good example of this relationship.
And finally quantum physics, where vibrations interact, scientifically explaining people with the green finger.

This is what I move about, I produce much of my food, scattering seeds of all kinds, and I keep many varieties.

I believe that being in genetics, all human beings have, in a way, farmers as ancestors.

[Gpaw]

@Gugumelo

I believe that being in genetics, all human beings have, in a way, farmers as ancestors.

TRUTH!

Odds are good, this was the first plant humans cultivated.

Cheers
G

[LegsMahoney]

Man I gotta check that book out!

[ELG]

I totally love the authors idea. Listened to a bit of the documentary they made on it, sorry for cheating… But wow i’m only 2 minutes in and already i see the world in a different way.

[ReikoX]

Not cheating. The point is to have a discussion and that’s exactly what you are doing.

[WestcoastCroppers]

Sweetness? Fuk dat Felicia it’s all about demo terpie derps mayne

[ReikoX]

Try reading the book dude, The sweetness part is in reference to apples, not cannabis. It is in reference to how “Johnny Apple Seed” would travel ahead of the westward expansion of the US and plant orchards of apple trees, mostly for use in making cider.

[Syn]

@blendmedmedman

every un-seeded flower wants you to put pollen on her

Very Kinky

[G-paS]

Two of his books are at the library but not this one.

[Esrgood4u]

Are libraries still a thing with having WWW now???

[Mr.Sparkle]

Yup, and the good ones provides other services along side just books, also some books are just better than web or digital

[Esrgood4u]

Yeah I know what you mean. Ive a few physical Haynes manuals that can easily be obtained as an ebook. Thing is at the time when I need to use one of them my phone gets turned off to stop me being disturbed.

[anonymous4289]

man… i have a box of cannabis related books my neighbor gave me when they moved. some looked pretty old. i’ll have to look into the box and see what it’s got (not all high times magazines, some actual books, lol)

[G-paS]

@Esrgood4u

Are libraries still a thing with having WWW now???

Yes, yes they are! I can read or listen to the audio books every day!

[Cbizzle]

My library also saves donated seed for gardens and is free to get seed from. Been thinking that I need to help them expand their collection. Also, never read the book, I’ll pick up a copy.

[monkeyman]

I love that book, and also the documentary movie. It is very interesting, not just what he says about weed, but plants in general. It made me think very differently about how we interact with plants.

[ReikoX]

Indeed, it changed the way I think about plants too. I heard something interesting the other day. Those tulips that have multiple colors get their coloring from a plant virus.

Tulip breaking virus - Wikipedia.

[monkeyman]

yes the same thing happened long ago and is covered in the book:
"The color of a tulip actually consists of two pigments working in concert — a base color that is always yellow or white and a second, laid-on color called an anthocyanin; the mix of these two hues determines the unitary color we see. The virus works by partially and irregularly suppressing the anthocyanin, thereby allowing a portion of the underlying color to show through. "

It wasn’t until the 1920s, after the invention of the electron microscope, that scientists discovered the virus was being spread from tulip to tulip by Myzus persicae , the peach potato aphid.