Pity For The Lima Bean

What is the life of a lima bean? Manifesting deaf, dumb, and blind in the dark soil? Pushing up into a complex, incomprehensive world? Having no sense of smell, no taste, no hearing, no touch?* Plants have it rough. Plants lack the ability to move fast enough for this world to avoid a bite. I pity plants for their lack of the perceptions that so many other bits of life enjoy. Why do plants persevere? Do they have any capacity to think?

In actuality, do plants touch with their roots? Smell with their root nodules? Taste? More? Do lima beans sense the vibrations of my footfall so near to them? I pity them.

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* See: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528792-100-plant-senses-taste/

“... As taste involves soluble chemicals, it is perhaps not surprising that much of a plant’s sense of taste is in its roots, surrounded as they are by soil and water. A classic experiment reveals that plants can use underground chemical messages to recognise (sic) their relatives nearby (New Scientist, 26 March 2011, p 46). There is also root-to-root communication between unrelated neighbours. …"

Caption: Pity For The Lima Bean

by Annmarie Throckmorton 2018