Plants

Plants, although more or less stationary, are characterized by the ability to generate their own nutrients from inorganic chemicals, air and water in the presence of light and facilitated by a catalyst. They exist in many forms adapted to the annual weather cycles in available ecological niches. As such they are a vital link in ecological food chains as well as providing habitats for most animal species. Plants are deliberately grown and harvested as crops, whether for the seeds, flowers, fruit, roots or timber. They are also much appreciated in their own right.

Groups and individuals may adopt behaviour patterns that do not require any movement through society relative to other bodies, however active they may be at their own particular location in relation to one another. They then derive any required resources by unself-consciously incorporating prevailing ideas, emotions and practical opportunities in the light of creative values. Such behaviour patterns exist in many forms adapted to long term behavioural cycles governing the nature of the psycho-social resources available. They are a vital link in the ecology of the psycho-social environment as well as providing contexts for many forms of non conscious behaviour. Such unself-conscious behaviour patterns may be deliberately cultivated when specific benefits may be derived from them. They may also be appreciated in their own right.

There is widespread association of the parts of a plant, or the processes of agriculture, with conceptual activity. Ideas may be planted like seeds. There are 'budding' hypotheses and those that have come to 'full flower' or to 'fruition', possibly following 'cross-fertilization'. Intellectual disciplines are recognized as having many 'branches' and as having their 'roots' in earlier forms of thought. The focus is however on the parts of a plant and not on the plant as a whole, except as in some archetypal cultural symbols (e.g. The Tree Yggdrasi and the Tree of Life). There is little recognition of the integration of the plant's' processes, of how it functions in any ecosystem, or of what is required in the care and cultivation of plants as metaphors of specific patterns of behaviour.

Varieties of plants and conditions for their growth. Plant ecosystem structure and dynamics. Plant cultivation and breeding. Crop rotation and monoculture. Plant diseases. Relationship to animals whether in pollination, seed distribution or as a source of food, shelter, or security. Adaptation to the seasons. Movement of pollen and seeds. Flower smells.