Botany of Desire Documentary
The Botany of Desire documentary was released in 2009 and focuses on the relationship between humans plants, that plants satisfy human desires to survive and reproduce. The film focuses on four different plants: the apple, the tulip, cannabis, and the potato. In each part of the film, the history, biology, and social views of the plant are explored.
The Apple: The Desire For Sweetness
Apples originated in Asia, specifically Kazakhstan and have since spread worldwide due to their sweetness. This sweetness gave apples their success and caused humans to cultivate and spread them. Apples do not reproduce copies, therefore a sweet apple seed’s may grow into a bitter apple. However, humans have a found a way to manipulate the plant. Farmers will graft trees to propagate the tree with desirable traits, mainly a sweet taste. I was very curious why this was, why do apple seeds grown into apples that are different from the parent? This is because each apple seed has a unique combination of genes from both the parent tree and the pollen donor tree due to genetic recombination, similar to humans. Apple trees also have a high amount of genetic diversity and their chromosomes can combine in multiple possible ways in the formation of seeds.
The Tulip: The Desire For Beauty
Tulips became very valued in the Netherlands in the 17th century which led to “Tulip Mania.” The desire for beauty was very strong and people would pay extreme prices for rare tulip bulbs. Humans would cultivate tulips in ways that satisfied their aesthetic wishes, such as many different shapes, colors, and patterns. This led to tulip farming focused on the appearance of the tulip. I thought it was very interesting how one of the most prized tulips was one that was diseased causing it to have a striped white appearance. Who knew such an expensive tulip would have a virus? I was very curious as to why tulips were so prized compared to other flowers. This is because tulips have a very saturated petal color and societally they became a symbol of wealth, as the rich were the ones to buy them, contributing more to their popularity. I feel like other flowers also deserve some love too though because tulips are not the only flowers with beauty!
Cannabis: The Desire For Intoxication
Cannabis was first discovered in India and China, since then it has been used for thousands of years for its psychoactive effects. This plant appeals to the human desire for altered states of consciousness and intoxication. This caused humans to breed marijuana plants specifically to be short, strong (potent), and to grow fast. Due to backlash, mainly the war on drugs, production of the plant moved indoors requiring the plant to grow shorter, causing the crossbreeding of different types of cannabis. Originally, individuals grew cannabis sativa but crossbred it with indica since indica grows much shorter. Growers also discovered that the female plants produce very psychoactive sticky resin to mate with males. To produce more of this resin, they separated the females from the males so the females would produce more as it would be looking for a male to mate with. Although many knew of the plants psychoactive properties, they did not know why. The existence of THC in the plant was discovered in Jerusalem. THC was discovered to activate an unknown network of chemical responses within the human brain, affecting the hippocampus, cerebellum and frontal cortex. Although cannabis has been viewed very negatively, it has been used for many positive things, specifically in the medical field. For example it can cause humans to forget things, possibly to unlearn traumatic experiences, treating mental illnesses such as PTSD. Medical marijuana has also been used to treat physical pain such as labor pain, asthma and rheumatism. Cannabis is currently illegal in many areas, which only contributes negatively to marginalized communities. However, it is legally sold and smoked normally in many places such as the state of California. It is very accepted in the Netherlands, where it is legally sold in coffee shops and there are garden shops for growers.
The Potato: The Desire For Control
The potato is native to the Andes region and Peruvians specifically were dependent on them for survival. Peruvians did not control the potato but rather adapted to it. They grew many varieties and preserved the diversity of the potato. This gave their crops protection form environmental pressures, differing from other areas where the potato became very prominent. For example, in Ireland the potato became the most prominent source of nutrition since the potato prospered in gloomy weather that other crops would struggle in. Many Irish people were dependent on this potato as their source of food and nutrition, however, they only planted one type of potato. In 1845, a wind spreading fungus infected the potato fields causing the potatoes to turn to mush and turn black. This caused a 3 year famine in Ireland that killed 1 million people. Without biodiversity, the potato fields were very vulnerable, representing the need to avoid mono-cultures. There is a similar situation with the russet burbank potato, which produces french fries. 7.5 billion pounds of french fries eaten a year rely on this potato, and a mono-culture on the plate = a mono-culture on land. To combat any environmental pressures, chemical pesticides deemed “safe to use” are sprayed on crops, although organic growers search for other options. The genetically modified new leaf potato that produces its own pesticides was used, however the backlash on GMO's ended the use of the new leaf. Today many are finding other ways to prevent pesticide use by introducing natural predators to bugs such as ladybugs! There is still a constant battle of ways to control potatoes. I find the way the Peruvians grew potatoes very beautiful as they adapted to the plant instead of manipulating the plant to adapt to us!
In Conclusion
I thought it was very interesting that in multiple of the plants presented there was a constant shift of the human perspective on the plant. For example, apples were seen as an amazing plant for their sweetness and later seen as an evil plant as it was being used to produce alcoholic cider. After “tulip mania,” there was a period of time were tulips became worthless and blamed for economic downfall. Cannabis is controversial and there have been many different viewpoints, mainly negative without recognizing its positive potential in the medical field. In these cases there is change in value of the plant in different times and societies. Overall, there is a very intricate relationship between humans and plants represented in all four examples, a back and forth between human desires and plant evolution. Each plant- apple, tulip, cannabis, and potato- have thrived because they appeal to human desires. Humans will then manipulate these plants further to suit their needs and desires. Our desires shape the environment and our environment shapes our desires. The clear interconnection between the natural world and human populations is very interesting.
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