'The question of whether plants possess some form or sentience or agency has a long and fraught history'
A beautifully presented essay by @ferrisjabr & Brendan Ko on the work of biologist Suzanne Simard to who we owe our understanding of the 'wood wide web' https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/02/magazine/tree-communication-mycorrhiza.html?smid=tw-share

Her seminal work on carbon transfer in mycorrhizal networks featured heavily in two successful books: P Wohlleben's 'The Hidden Life of Trees' and Richard Powers's 'Overstory'. There is wonderful news of the 2021 release of her own book 'Finding The Mother Tree' by @AAKnopf

The paper which debuted the wood wide web in @Nature in 1997: https://www.nature.com/articles/41557 

Highlighting a couple of quotes from the essay- quotes that made me chuckle (approvingly)- not only because they deserve some thought but also because of her quietly reflective comment on the scientific community's reaction to her research: "a shadow was growing over my work"

"In some experiments, fungi have withheld nutrients from stingy plants and strategically diverted phosphorous to resource-poor areas where they can demand high fees from desperate plants."

"The razing of an old-growth forest is not just the destruction of magnificent individual trees — it’s the collapse of an ancient republic whose interspecies covenant of reciprocation and compromise is essential for the survival of Earth as we've known it"

Tagging this too here (it was excellently reported): https://twitter.com/QuantaMagazine/status/1338968385791602696?s=19