Trees with “Crown Shyness” Mysteriously Avoid Touching Each Other

Sure, I too like the idea of trees having personalities! Big fan of Tolkien's Ents in that regard. :-)

I guess the interesting question to me is how awareness of other trees is known? Potentially a field effect? Of course "field" is just a placeholder word for data points AFAICTell so I think what we're really asking about is the Boundary of Experiencing Subjects.

Seems like some species are sensitive to collision caused by swaying crowns. A larger sway seems to be correlated with a larger gap etc. No doubt there are other factors... but it doesn't look like crown shyness is a field-type effect at a distance....

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/sa...3/art00008
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.11...121.x/full
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2425452
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...2715001486

It's always interesting that those that gravitate towards immaterialism assume the answers lie therein...

I guess that applies to most people, they understand their present, through past learning/experiences, and is the same for those that 'gravitate towards' materialism or immaterialism, etc,

I'm still wondering about the New Yorker video back there. It may well be chemical but I'm fascinated by how the plant knows which direction to "cast" in order to grab the pole. Also how the second plant knows that the pole is now occupied and starts casting around for another (which isn't there) before abandoning the effort.

I'm also wondering, Steve001, why you thought it necessary to start off your first response with a snipe at the other posters. You could have proposed your perfectly reasonable explanation without that.

I'm still wondering about the NYT video back there. It may well be chemical but I'm fascinated by how the plant knows which direction to "cast" in order to grab the pole. Also how the second plant knows that the pole is now occupied and starts casting around for another (which isn't there) before abandoning the effort.

I'm also wondering, Steve001, why you thought it necessary to start off your first response with a snipe at the other posters. You could have proposed your perfectly reasonable explanation without that.

Which plant casts about? 
I think it's important to make aware bias thinking.

I'm still wondering about the NYT video back there. It may well be chemical but I'm fascinated by how the plant knows which direction to "cast" in order to grab the pole. Also how the second plant knows that the pole is now occupied and starts casting around for another (which isn't there) before abandoning the effort.

Looking at the New Yorker article by Michael Pollan, it seems that Stefano Mancuso, who provided him with the time-lapse videos, thinks plants may be able to use echo-location:
http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archiv...ent-plant/

I haven't read it, but here's a paper co-authored by Mancuso, entitled "Acoustic and magnetic communication in plants: Is it possible?":
https://www.researchgate.net/publication...t_possible

Which plant casts about? 

In the video linked by Laird (The New Yorker Magazine).

I think it's important to make aware bias thinking.

The phrase "people in glass houses" springs to mind.

When I was young, I worked at a golf course. Around the number three tee box a row of Aleppo pines had been planted to mitigate the damage caused by errant shots, to near by houses. What drew my attention was that the tree's were all growing away from the tee box at a very severe angle. They rather gave the impression that they were none to happy about doing forced duty as backstops.
" consider all my remarks biased unless otherwise noted "

In the video linked by Laird (The New Yorker Magazine).



The phrase "people in glass houses" springs to mind.

True it is a bias, but its not a glass house.

I only asserted what is known. The creosote plant for one.  Look up allopathic interaction in plants. All plants don't. The point I am making is not to first look for metaphysical explanations.

I think you mean allelopathic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allelopathy

cheers

So some biases are more ....i don't know robust perhaps?
Than other biases???