Almost a decade ago, I began exploring interspecies collaboration and encountered a book by research scientist Monica Gagliano, PhD. In it, she describes an experience in which a plant gave her what amounted to a complete experimental design: what question to ask, which plant to work with, the dimensions of the equipment, and how to assemble it.

She followed the instructions, moving beyond anthropocentric ways of knowing—which is much easier said than done—and arrived at startling and wildly unexpected results. The resulting peer-reviewed research offered empirical evidence of a capacity Western science had long insisted plants could not possess.

Well, I thought. That’s encouraging! And also wonderfully efficient.

I am quite unconvinced that human ingenuity alone is enough to negotiate the planetary mess we have created. If plants can offer detailed, practical guidance that radically changes our understanding, what other guidance might be available? And how might ordinary humans become better able to receive it?