Introduction to The Green Thread: Dialogues with the Vegetal World

Abstract

In a research article, "Arabidopsis Plants Perform Arithmetic Division to Prevent Starvation at Night," scientists describe the ability of the diminutive mouse-ear cress, or Arabidopsis thaliana (hereafter referred to as "Arabidopsis"), to undertake nocturnal mathematical procedures.1 Laboratory evidence demonstrates that the cress measures its speed of consumption along with the time remaining until sunrise, then "arithmetically divides these two quantities to compute the appropriate starch degradation rate."2 The steady, calculated expenditure of starch enhances the plant's fitness overnight and, one could argue, the efficiency of photosynthesis in the early morning.