The Botany Of Desire

The Botany of Desire covered four main areas of plants and their traits: sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. All four of these components are seen throughout plants such as apples, cannabis, tulips and potatoes, and demonstrate their relationships with humans and manipulation.
I was fascinated by the story of the apple, and how the majority of the fruits are not naturally sweet, but bitter. The genetic diversity of each apple makes for a very slim picking- figuratively and literally- in regards to sweet apples. Each apple comes from a long line of ancestors originating back to a single tree, and although all apples have the same genes, the difference in taste and appearance comes from the individual expression of those genes in each fruit. So apples have epigenetics! Thinking about this is mindblowing, as we humans are the same way, and our epigenetics are influenced by our everyday decisions and lifestyles, which makes me wonder- what determines the epigenetics of an apple?

Tulips are seen as the pinnacle of beauty by both animals and humans, almost to the point of becoming a frenzy. The most expensive tulip bulb was sold at the same price as a townhouse on Fifth Avenue, which shows human desire for beauty- but what exactly is beauty, and who gets to determine what is considered beautiful and desirable? The bright colors and shapes of the tulips are on display all over the world, especially in the Netherlands, where the largest tulip garden resides. The human brain is attracted to the bright colors that stand out and the sweet aroma surrounding the flowers, and the attraction of this plant can somehow convince the human brain to desire what is assumed to be beauty. This raises the question of beauty applying to both humans and animals, and what stands out to pollinators in their symbiotic relationship with plants, and if there are similar factors in deciding true beauty for humans, as we do not pollinate plants or use their resources in the same way.
Taking a look at cannabis was especially interesting, as there have been many social developments around the legalization of recreational marijuana since the creation of the documentary, and I had never realized the history of the plant was so extensive. Diving deeper into the thought, the fact that a mere plant has such control over humans to alter their state of mind to a point of memory loss and even danger is mind-blowing, and something I was interested to hear about. Just as cannabis can control the human mind, humans have manipulated the plant to grow in different environments, cross breeding two types of cannabis to grow indoors and offer more product. Technology has allowed the manipulation of plants just as plants manipulate humans, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two. Thinking about how humans stumbled across this plant that contained a chemical that allowed for an alternate reality to be attained, does cannabis have the same effect on animals that may cross the path of the chemical in nature?

Potatoes are viewed in the documentary as the epitome of control, and are a great example of how humans can manipulate their crops, at the same time raising the ethical issues of genetically modified organisms, or GMO’s. Normally, people view GMO’s as a negative aspect of the agricultural world, but after the documentary and looking at the issue from a farmer’s point of view, modifying organisms has almost become a necessity in today’s world. After the Great Famine of Ireland, almost all potatoes were wiped out due to a single organism- and the same threat still exists today. A single insect, virus, or fungus has the potential or eradicating all production of a crop, which the average consumer not only relies on, but also the farmers and their families rely on as their source of income and their entire lifestyle. These people most of the time do not believe that genetically modifying their organisms is ethically correct, but in order for the plant to survive and for there to be plentiful crop, these actions must be taken. Every person has the personal choice whether or not to consume or buy GMO’s, so with that being said, how do you feel about buying GMOs? What about if the product you were purchasing and consuming had been genetically modified but you didn’t know that was the case?

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The Botany of Desire was interesting to me especially because of the way the film had four separate and extraordinary stories about four ordinary crops, and found a way to tie them all together. The documentary was able to show the way over time we have manipulated these plants to benefit us, but also how, maybe even unknowingly, these plants manipulated us as humans. The Botany of Desire is a story of coevolution between some of the most interesting species on the planet, and definitely worth the watch!