Plant's-eye View of the World
 By Evelyn McConnaughy


Have you wondered why cats act crazy around catnip? In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan describes in fascinating detail the continually evolving reciprocal interactions and changes in plants and animals. Plants, to ensure survival and dispersal, take advantage of needs, sensitivities or desires of animals; and we and other animals, in return, react to, adjust to, enhance or suppress plant characteristics of importance to our survival or needs. Pollan focuses on the relationship between humans and four specific plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes.

Desire: Sweetness. Plant: the apple. In the early days of this country, lacking sweet grapes for wine-making, eager settlers were grateful to that strange character, John Chapman, Johnny Appleseed, furiously propagating apples for the making of hard cider to satisfy the desire for alcohol.

Desire: Beauty. Plant: the tulip. In his discussion of tulips, Pollan philosophizes about our innate love of flowers and contrasts between the "Dionysian-type flowers," like roses, and the "Apollonian-type," such as tulips. In the 1600's this attraction for flowers in Holland erupted in a frenzy the author dubs "tulipomania;" fortunes were made and lost in the frantic development of exotic types, including strange colors induced by a virus. Thus, by employing the help of humans, the virus was able to extend itself, but at the eventual expense of the tulip.

Desire: Intoxication. Plant: marijuana. His chapter on development and enhancement of marijuana discusses various toxins, hallucinogens, etc. that plants produce and their effects on humans and other animals; and questions, from an evolutionary standpoint, whether it does a creature any good to consume a psychedelic plant, or, if like catnip, it is perhaps just an interesting accident.

Desire: Control. Plant: the potato. The discussion of the development of the potato combines evolutionary history with a questioning of our changing place in nature, and the advantages and drawbacks of biotechnology, agribusiness, monoculture, genetic engineering, pesticides, and the demand for perfect French fried potatoes.

And as for the cat's strange attraction for catnip--you must read the book, but in brief, this plant contains a chemical very like the pheromone produced by cats during courtship, but why this furthers the aims of either species, I can't guess. There are many fascinating ideas to ponder in this stimulating book.



[ Back ]



[ Gallery | About the ENHS | Membership | Lecture Calendar | Resources and References ]
[ Links | Community Events | ENHS Board | Previous Features | Kids Zone ]


For more information about the society please e-mail: David Wagner
Page last modified: 15 November 2003
Location: http://biology.uoregon.edu/enhs/archive/sep03/sep034.html
E-mail the WebSpinner: cpapke@gmail.com