When I was in Trinidad, my buddy Hamid pointed out a plant growing near the beach. In the local patois, the plant is sometimes called “ti Marie.” Called shame-plant, touch-me-not, or sensitive plant in other regions, Mimosa pudica has a fascinating wilting reflex. Shake or touch it and it will pull its fern-like leaves inward in a sudden bashful drooping.

We poked it a few times and it really was pretty neat to see a plant react so strongly to being touched.

Plant scientist Monica Gagliano took this a bit further. She built a little roller coaster for ti Marie and sent her for a ride. As she dropped, she tucked her leaves in. This was expected.

Gagliano kept sending the plant down the rail. A few drops later and the drooping reflex was less pronounced. After awhile it stopped.

The plant still reacted when shaken or touched, but the roller coaster was no longer a big deal. It was as if the plant had learned that the ride was not a threat. Gagliano sent the same plant for a ride two months later. No reaction.

It had remembered.

In other studies, pea plants were exposed to light and the gentle breeze of a fan. As anticipated, the plant grew toward the light, the direction of which was changed from time to time, and always with the fan.

After a time, researchers turned off the light and would only change the position of the fan. The pea plant followed. It had associated the gentle breeze with the light and followed the moving air accordingly.

I invite you to read this fascinating article on the burgeoning study of plant memory where researchers are only now starting to recognize not only the ability of plants to learn, but to pass what they have learned on to future generations.

What are the implications for those long-lived species, those sentinels of the forest that have lived for thousands of years? What memories have they accumulated? What experiences have they stored?

For if the wilderness learns and remembers, then it is not a stretch to say that the wilderness may also teach.

Of course, we’ve been saying that for awhile around here.

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