 Thank you Well in the last two days we hit a lot of plants many of them has been just collected here around of the town But we really know what we are hitting when we hit the plant Hi, I guess that we have a Wrong idea of plants. We normally Think that plants are low level living organisms Not at all sophisticated or evolved. Well, the real situation is the complete opposite Plants are Intelligent organisms. They are evolved. They are sophisticated They have strategy and I will try to show you some example of their behavior in the following minutes well How is that we have it is a wrong idea how plants is something that it's very hold in our history if we look at the Like this is the our pictures coming from the Lascaux site in France. This is a colored 16 chapel of Prehistory where there are hundreds and hundreds of squared meter of picture, but no mention and no Nothing about plants. Why? because plants Probably there was nothing glorious and nothing heroic in collecting plants nothing to be remembered much more Glories to hit to hunt and animals and it's something that it's very hold and in our culture for example in Then in Genesis in the Noah story There is no mention of plants God Is going to submerge the world and giving a lot of instruction to know how to to deal with this catastrophe, but no mentioning one Plants why? because probably plants were not filled felt as creature of God and even in the Many representation in the millions of representation of the Noah story you will never so a plants but Funny to say the first thing that know how did after Landing on the had a lot of month was to plant a grape wine So he had the grape wine with his with him But they are not mentioned because they are not creatures that mean they are not living Organisms and it's not just in a Bible for example in Islamic culture Where the representation of the artistic representation of the creature of God is forbidden We have not so we have many representation We have not so many representation of humans and animals But we have millions and millions of representation on flowers and plants Islamic art is a flurry ledge and This means also that for Islamists Plants are not really creature and animals is confronting with a problem When we have a for example like change in the environment The first thing that animals can do is to run away to think a little bit and to come back eventually Plants need to sense what is what is Changing in the environment with much more Precision than an animal's and this is why each single plant is able to sense at least 20 different different chemical and physical parameters Concurrently in real time in any moment no animal. It's able to do the same and Plants are able to to change their Metabolisms to cope with the stress and yesterday for example, we had from Magnus that leaks were able to to grow at minus one and So it's it's a wonderful example how the plants are able to manage Hey, even a very strong stresses Look at this a movie Yeah, we have a Snail That it's hunted By a plant. This is many of you probably know about this a plant is a carnivorous plant is called the Dionea Mushipola or for English speaking people is the Venus fly trap and Well, I think that no one of you have dubbed about what we we so it's a plant Hunting an animal. There is someone out of you have dubbed about this well Until the beginning of of 19th century that was not granted at all for example Linnaeus that was a very Impressive and important Genius of biology of that time Linnaeus looking at the Venus fly trap wrote a series of absurdity like that Not to admit that plants were able to hunt animals and today the situation. It's not much Different Yeah, we have a sir David Attenberg said David Attenberg is probably the the most popular most famous popularizing popularized scientist and And he is also a lover a real lover of plant He did some of the most beautiful documentary about plants that are around and When he speak look or now I will show you two short piece of movie when he speak about plant everything is fine But when he speak about animals he removed the fact that even plants exist look This is the biggest flower in the world. This is the biggest flower in the world The blue whale the biggest creation that exists on the planet. It's wrong because The blue whale it's not at all the biggest creature that exists on the planet. It's a dwarf If compared with this is the the single biggest the creature that exists on the planet It's the sequoia dendronus and perverence and we have an idea. How big is this creature? This is a man here It's order of magnitude bigger than a blue whale and We are we are looking just on half of the plants because we tend to remove the fact that plants are not the above part There is an hidden part in the ground that it's much more important for the plants And for us also and that is as bigger as the above plants at least This is a trio of lives that a trio of lives is something like the order of nature is something that they picked that the relationships among living organisms and this is a Tree of lives a German tree of lives of 18th century showing how from a single cell until the top There is an evolution of the life until arriving to the men. Well, this is a wrong Tree to have a right tree. We have we need to write we need sorry to wait for Chastarwin, it's Chastarwin. It's really a Changing of everything after Chastarwin's nothing was the same This is a on the left here. We have a Tree of lives that has been drawn in a notebook by Chastarwin in the first half of 18th of 19th century and Here on the right. We have a tree of lives that is has is based on our Knowledge about the genome of hundreds and of hundreds of different speeches. Well, this is a kind of genealogic Tree of the life on the earth Well, did you see that the two spots over there the green and the red? We need to focus a little bit to see that the green one is Zea mice the maze and The red one is the almost hapiens so I Was just to show you again. We are not so far We are very close Relative in we are in in in in in life and another false idea about plants is that they are Ancient organisms so they appeared on the earth much before Human much before mammals. This is also true. This is true about the origin But the angiosperms that are the flowering plants that today represent the the the great majority of plants species Existing on the planet appeared on the earth After mammals so they are from this point of view much more modern than mammals but the real stuff is that Evolution is something that has been never really felt as has been never really understood and Evolution doesn't work like this. This is a wrong Picture of evolution evolution is like this. It's a tree Well, each single speeches Living today is a day picks of is a shoot of evolution. So there is a Parity of dignity among living speeches Well How is that plants have this bad reputation? This bad reputation. They are not so interesting and Low-level organisms and I just thought it was the first big scientist at the Kuhn of science and His influence is today Very strong and Aristotel wrote that plants are Very low-level organisms because they lack movement and sensing and this is a complete absurdity Plants of course are not just able to to move they are Incredibly sophisticated communicators. They are able to communicate with other plants of the same speeches They are able to discriminate if they are if they are speaking communicating with Plants of the same tribu of the same family or if they are communicating with plants of other speeches Or they are able to communicate also with animals with insects and for example during Polynesia yesterday Polynesian has been Remember, but may many of the many of the speaker Polynesian. It's a very a serious stuff for plants because Plants need to have to find a vector to move the pollen from one flower or from one plant to the other and to do this Plants make to get make a kind of market and all the Polynesian has been Compared to the market where we have Sellers that are plants buyers that are the insects we have banners that are flowers So we have also some kind of hidden publicity that it's the flower of and the smell of the smell of the flowers, sorry It's it's a serious business business the the the insect Move the pollen from one plant to the other and in change plants give the insect a very Sweet and the energetic substance compound that it's called nectar as a vector of Polynesian Plants are able to use not just insect, but every Animals that you can image Birds reptiles mammals as being and are normally used by plants to transport pollen from one plant to the other But there are plants that are Much more less honest than the normal one and our orchids Orchids look at this. This is a very nice A Article a period a papers appear the nature of some years ago or some years ago is called the flower of seduction. They are all the time they are really they act dishonesty and Cheating insects pride from missing sex and nectar and giving nothing in change and Look at this. This is a this is something It's it's an unicom in biology because here we have a very We have a trip at a kind of my mesis of Over three different kind we have we have a shape the shape It's very similar to the female of the pollinator of the pollinator We have a my mesis in the texture Look at the hares on the on the flower. They are the same Kind of hares that are on the female of the pollinators and these orchids. It's also able to produce the smell of the female and Look at the effect. This is the Not so smart to be as yesterday Who was Mostly reminded okay, and here we have them the lure This is a non-social be I must say also, but it's all the all the the same a be Looking for the for the female Irresistible attract the look he touched to see if the texture it's right And it seems happy And look at the plant look he put these these yellow stuff on the head This is a it's called a pollinum It's it's the pollen. It's the look it. It's a very sticky and The the cheating has been so strong that provokes a yaku lesion so in the place where you have these Orchids this kind of bees are unable to reproduce themselves because are completely Used for their sake by plant. Oh On the opposite there are very honest plant like this one. This is a Lupinus He produces millions and millions of flowers and he won't not to have the same flowers Visited twice so when a flower has been visited by an insect he changed the color of the petals from Violet to red to sorry to white to Signalize insects a here. There is no more nectar look around and find another flower It's a very honest plant oh I Would I would skip the seed dispersal that it's interesting But probably that's a little bit too too too long because but I would like just to to give you some idea about these white stuffy These are seeds and this is a white organ here. It's called Eliosome from the Greek Eliomins oil soma means body and are very rich in body Very rich in lipid and proteins that plants produce just to your hands for the seed dispersion So how it works? They produce the seed the hands came to to find that they are Eliosome and bring the seeds with them dispersing around it's it's it's one of the most beautiful way strategy that plants Used to to move around their seeds like this one and another wonderful chapter of the strategies are plant defense because plants are not so Weak Organisms as we we think because on the contrary it would be not possible that today on the planet 99 more than 99% of the biomass that's mean more than 99% of what is living on the earth are plants animals are just traces on the planet So this mean that they have a very the very good strategy in term of biology to Spread themself around and to defend and one of them one of the way they did it's To defend the plant that plant uses to produce chemical weapon and For example in in the 80 in South Africa Many of these antelopes that are called kudu has been killed by plants Just by increasing the number that the the percentage of tannins Tannins, you know very well a Component of plants normally tannins are below the 3% of the composition of the Of the leaves but when it But plants are able to increase this amount until seven eight nine becoming really poisonous so in in this way in at the end of the eighties in South Africa Thousand and thousands antelopes died Because they were grazing too much for plant and There are many kind of Strategies look at the slalom the the potato will the wild potatoes Able to to avoid Aphids In a very wonderful way. They are they really release in the in the air a chemical That it's an alarm pheromone Produced the normally by aphids so that the plants say to the have it so there is something that it's not is going wrong here Let's come away go away, and they leave the plants when we cultivated the plant that it's important When we domesticated plant normally we plants Lose their ability to defend themselves This is an important point and yesterday Somehow some of the speaker Remind about the fact that we need a new plant for To be domesticated. It's not so uneasy task because Plants are like animals You cannot domesticate all the plants that you want you cannot make a tiger your pet for example And it's the same for plants The plants that we normally hit that because has been domesticated in the course of evolution in Some word they decided to Share their life with with humans So we need to provide them chemicals and defense and so on so when we We take a plant from the forest and we put the the same plant in the field This plant it's unable to it's a weak plant. It's unable to defend themselves. It's unable to find energy and strategy. Well Oh plants are able also to manipulate We saw that the story of the of the the of the orchids and I would like to show you there's a Example is called the Mirme cofili. It's a very strange term. It's our plants that like Mirmex means hunts plants that like hunts. There are many plants many Thousand of speeches that have a very strict relationship as symbiosis with hands by Producing Food for the hands and in change having the fence look at this movie The plants is able to produce a this drop of Nectars very very sweet Attracting hunts on the on the on the plant. This is a lima bean and The hunts like a lot this kind of nectar and in change For this they attacked every herbivores that are is on the plant in a very aggressive way Hunts are very aggressive they Among all the animals look and at the end they you need to to go away, okay? And not just not just insect this kind of Hunts are defending the plant that is in symbiosis even against other plants Because they don't want to have their own plant to be Surrounded by competitors so when there is some plants close to the nest nesting plant is attacked look and cut And And now there is them and that the most probably interesting thing is that Look at how the plants are able to make these hands depending It's really a It's really like an addiction. It's a drug because these hands are Unable to live without the plants because the plants want to have the hands Just for the for for it for him look if we put some bread on on the plant The hands remove Wow If we put some sugar, this is like like giving gold Nothing come on They put away the sugar They are completely addicted just to to eat the food produced by the plants They are able to live just eating the the The fruit produced by the plants just for the hands Okay, there is a people that Hargue that is possibly is possible that not just insect and animals But even human has been manipulated by men for example Michael Poland wrote that We don't know if it's really we have to misticate the corn or the corn I have used at the house to Around all around the globe. It's something that we need a little bit to think it's just to change the point of view and Now I would like to show you in the last minutes how is possible that plants are able to do this well in This is a just Darwin in 80 80 at the end of his life wrote this a wonderful book that it's called the power of movement in plants And well, what do you wrote? I will go in in the last Paragraph that it's something important because in the last paragraph of his book Chas Darwin normally put the the so-called the take-home message was that it's hardly an exaggeration to say that that in the tip of the route having the power of directing the movement of the other part Like act like the brain of one of the lower insect and some and so on and so on so Chas Brian Chas Darwin proposed that at the end of a 19th century that plants have actually a brain in the roots and It's a kind of in the for Darwin and it's and what is the real is that plants are like inverted men so they have the cognitive part under the ground that it's the more protected part as we put our brain among the most strongest bone and The reproductive part above so essentially what we like of plants is the reproductive part the the cognitive part is ground and Look every every organisms have the two pole Separate so we have the cognitive pole in here and the reproductive pole here And it's the same for every single organism and the plant is the same if you want to see the cognitive part you need to look at the opposite part from the reproductive part and it's below ground and Look, this is a root apex moving in Exploring the the environment and I look at the movement It's the same movement that every animals without legs Need to need to do to move. It's like a snake and worms. They move in the same way and It's not an easy task. You cannot do this this movement without having a kind of brain or a brain like and I will adjust it just To show this registration this these signals that are you saying here are action potential This action potential has been recorded in the root apex of a maze Plant and are the same kind of signals that we have in our brain It's the same kind of signals Plants have no brain But have cells that are brain like, okay Okay, and just You know how many roots there are in the plants because I sorry in Each a single root apex have is a group of a cell like brain like cells but There are in a single plant of rye something like 11 and half million of root apex and they work all together in Networks this is on the left. We have internet on the right. We have a root apparatus Look at the at the the similarity in the topography. They are similar because they work in the same way They work in in network Oh and yesterday some one of you Reminds about the fact that insect are Able to to to a single hand. It's a very stupid Insect a single be the same with we saw But all together they they Display a kind of swarm behavior. It's the same for roots roots are able to to grow and Together and to to to to explore the environment in a very specific way but wait I Won't just to show you a last and out of time. I would like just you to show this this last movie. Oh This is a this is a bin It's one of my preferred plant and we normally call our fundamental plant with name of Italian genius from Archimedes Until the Spucci is Marconi in this case and because I want to remind myself that they are intelligent and Look, he's looking for a support and This is a there is clearly an intention if the plants know where the support is and Want to reach it look It's It's the same the same behavior that we can find in a sensitive animal and If looking at this one No, one of you Someone of you is always thinking that plants are low-level Organisms well, I'm unable to to speak to tall and And Take-home message Plants are intelligent and sophisticated organisms and We should use for plants there must be a your memory intelligence, but There is a non-return rule that Prohibited this if when I normally I like to speak with With people that it's not from my field when I speak with with a Other plant scientist saying that plants have memory behavior intelligence. There is all normally I'm unable to finish a talk and Not all plant can be domesticated and It's just a remind just few plants the plants need to decide that to live with the human it's something that can be useful for the plant and And That's is the most probably the most the two most now that the two most important point Today we know just 10% of the plant species on the planet so Come on. I am saying you that we don't know nothing now We don't know nothing about 90% of the plants that are on the planet Well from this 10% we have all the food We eat we have all the the medical We all the pharmaceutical compound that we use has been for the first time So look at the synthesizer the starting from plants So what can be in there in the remaining 90% to probably the cure for all the illness and the food for billions and billions of Humans and the sad part of the story is that each day We lose at least the the estimates between 3000 or 4000 plant species they became extinct without Any idea from what what they were We never know there So my proposal is that plants need rights as As animals, I know that it's strange. It's Something that can best can normally sound as science fiction, but I would like just to remind you that until the 50th century so until 500 above Christ Child child children had no rights at all Okay, so a father a Roman father can be can decide to to sell to kill to eat Any problem. Yes today. It's a little bit difficult and animal also know Had now have rights And I think that we need to grant rights even to plants not for the plants but for us Because if we lose plants we lose ourselves. Thank you very much