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" If the world is a tree,

we are the blossoms "

Novalis

The Psychology of Plants

August 13th, 2020

The Ivy card from The Druid Plant Oracle. Illustration by Will Worthington

From a recent article in the Research Digest of the British Psychological Society:

Comparative psychology is the study of animal behaviour, and its psychological underpinnings. But the term wasn’t always this restrictive. Until about 1935, plant behaviour also featured in texts in the field. Now Umberto Castiello at the University of Padua argues that it’s high time that plants regained their rightful place in the study of the psychology of non-human organisms.

In a paper published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, Castiello gathers together a selection of recent evidence that plants can communicate, remember, recognise kin, decide and even count — “all abilities that one would normally call cognitive if they were observed in animals”. Far from being hard-wired, inflexible respondents to a changing world, they can adapt to change, benefit from classical conditioning, and even come to make predictions about the future.

Read the article here

3 Responses to “The Psychology of Plants”

  1. I would like to get a copy of the Druid Plant Oracle- beautiful illustration! I know plants communitcate to people and one another. Trees definitly knkow when they are loved and respond accordingly.

  2. Thanks for the article Philip! The Druid Plant Oracle brings me much valuable knowledge/magick & I love the beautiful illustrations /|\

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