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The habits of vines
If we take this idea of the diffused consciousness of an octopus being not unlike the extended awareness of a climbing plant, it gives us an imaginative route into how such organisms might experience the world. I have spent a not inconsiderable amount of time in the worlds of vines, if not always in their natural habitats. Their far-out lifestyles make them excellent subjects when seeking to understand plant experience. Everything they do is so evident in the ways they grow and move, as if their forms trace the history of their experiences. One reason for this is that they have a pressing aim: to find a support to climb up, which in a wild situation is usually a larger plant such as a tree. And they use a wide variety of strategies to detect potential hosts. Some do it mechanically, circumnutating to find a target and then coiling around supports after making physical contact. Some detect certain airborne compounds that hosts emit and make a beeline for them. Others detect different colours of light or head towards looming shadows which might indicate where a support can be found.
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