Lingua Planta

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Linguaplanta.com​

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Did you know plants communicate via molecules through the air? All plants exchange olfactory messages via thousands of volatile compounds. Based on her research after these molecular messages, Merle Bergers made perfumes based on this botanical language of scent to shift our perspective from human to plant-perspective.​

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Sometimes plants must resort to the mechanism of volatile production to summon insects for protection or to fend off unwanted nibbling on their leaves. Plants attract bees and butterflies depending on the ripeness of the fruit and the plumpness of pollen. They even seduce people with their alluring perfumes to plant their flowers.. Plants attract, defend and repel with an astounding sense of inter-species connectivity and collaboration.

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This installation invites the visitor to partake in plant communication. A porcelain and glass sculpture sitting on top of a stem like figure releases a scented fog. The fog is communicating with the visitor the way a plant would. It is telling you something very important. Either to come closer, keep guard or get out of the way; attract, defend or repel. But you will have to guess what is being said. Paying close attention to, maybe for the first time ever, what a plant is trying to tell you. Microscopic images of plant sensory glands give the visitor an idea of the scale and form of plant communication.