Talking to your plants is not as strange an idea as you think

SOME people talk to their house plants and, even if you don’t, you would probably describe a geranium that’s wilting as ‘not looking happy’. 

The constitution of Switzerland requires ‘account to be taken of the dignity of living beings, when handling animals, plants and other organisms’. In 2008, the Swiss government established an ethics committee to define and protect the dignity of plants. Is this all rubbish?

Not entirely. Science shows that the differences between plants and animals are not as vast as was previously believed. The findings are summed up in a book I’m reading, What A Plant Knows, by Daniel Chamovitz. Dr Chamovitz is an academic from Tel Aviv University and the science in his book is impeccable.