The author, Monica Gagliano, has a wikipedia page that gives a good overview of her career. Since this is the basis of the book, Thus Spoke the Plant, it’s a good place to start to become familiar with her work. Also, the links in the references go to her articles and talks. Some of the links are broken and some of the articles in journals are by subscription. Still, you could be able to see some of that information if you want.
ResearchGate is an academically focused website where many faculty place copies of their articles (generally peer-reviewed) online. At the time of our discussion I hadn’t been able to find the page for Monica Gagliano, but I have now! It is another resource for tracking down her scientific publications.
There’s always her website, of course.
And, in contrast to Mancuso, Monica Gagliano has a strong video presence, many of the clips are an hour or longer. Just do a search on her name.
Most of the links we used for the discussion focused on the science and the experiments of Gagliano and others. Half the book, however, is about her personal experiences with the plants.
On the one hand, apart from her descriptions of her experiences, there isn’t really a lot that can provide visuals and more information about that. She worked with various indigenous shamans and healers (as we might call them) and was given food and drink that induced visions. She is quite clear that this was done under direct supervision – by both the plant and a human.
On the other hand, I’ve recently come across a couple articles that are important caveats. Tropical plants that can cause hallucinations can be used in ways that are dangerous to the individual and are damaging to the indigenous communities. A sobering story of the misuse of ayahuasca recently appeared in The Guardian.
The bottom line, so to speak, is do not do this at home. This is work that should not be entered into lightly, as Gagliano makes clear.
In this 2021 TEDxAustralia talk (13:29), Gagliano speaks about heresy in science and the importance of persisting. She provides some of her own history working with fish and how that work came to an end. This is also described in her book. She turned to plants and did her first experiment with the sensitive plant and the rest is history. Rather interestingly and supporting her statements of “professional death” due to heresy (beats being burned at the stake), the TED organizers have a note that her theories “remain an emerging field of study which are not yet supported by sufficient scientifc evidence.” Just saying…
An article by Gagliano and Marder in Botany One describes the behaviour of the mimosa plant in lay terms and includes still images of the plant.
In her TEDxAustralia talk, Gagliano mentions an article, The Intelligent Plant, written by Michael Pollan and published in the New Yorker. It may be found here.
In a 2018 Bioneers talk (24:58), Gagliano spoke on plant intelligence and why imagination is key to understanding the natural world. Without imagination, you can’t come up with alternative explanations, think outside the box. And being able to do that is critical for a scientist. As she describes, she began her plant work by thinking of sound and bioacoustics, which led to the idea of communication, and on to the cognitive abilities of plants.
From the Yale School of the Environment, this 2:55 video describes an interdepartmental project that placed probes on plants so people could hear them. A side note here: we’ve certainly run across other examples of people listening to plants. In 2021 we watched Dame Judi Dench’s My Passion for Trees, in which she is able to listen to one of her trees. And, of course earlier than that, the infamous Secret Life of Plants had reports of listening to plants.
From Slice Science, this 50:27 video is on the secret language of plants: how plants talk. According to the video notes: “Plants are far more sophisticated than we once thought. They can communicate, recognize family members, and even react to music. Without a brain or nervous system, they interact with their environment, send warning signals, and form alliances with animals. Some even mimic insects to ensure pollination. Science is only beginning to uncover the true intelligence of the plant world.”
Another Slice offering is this 15:57 video of Mancuso talking about his experiments and plant intelligence.
But there’s more (of course). The team from SLICE has quite a few videos on plants, along with a lot of other science videos. You can check out all their videos on their home page: www.youtube.com/@SLICE_Science. This link doesn’t seem to work for me although it is correct. If it doesn’t work and you want to see their videos, just type slice science in your browser.)