Grounding in Plant Thinking
Part 01: Being Attentive
Part 02: Drawing In Time
03: Learning to See Plants (Above & Ground)
04: Learning to Understand
1.Michael Pollan, The Botany Of Desire: A Plant’s - Eye View of the World (New York : Random House, 2002),xii.
2. Craig Holdrege, Thinking Like a Plant: A Living Science for Life ( Great Barrington: Lindisfarne Press2013) ,40
Plant Thinking has provided me with a profound understanding of plant life and its relationship with place. During our field trips, I had the opportunity to compare the landscape conditions and plants of two parallel sites. This exercise led me to develop new insights about how plants grow in relation to their place and other plants, and to speculate about the underground life of the plant’s community. This new understanding has the potential to significantly influence and inform my future practice in landscape architecture.
The reading of “The Human Bumblebee” by Michael Pollan gives me a new perspective about plant thinking. The idea that there is a chance plants can manipulate us to work for them, just in the same way as they manipulate a bumblebee to disseminate pollen, is quite fascinating to me.1 Pollan came up with this idea when he was working in his garden and thinking over the different roles of humans and bumblebees in making the garden. Before this reading, I used to think in the same way as Pollan did that humans are in control of everything when it comes to selecting and planting specific plants over others. This new insight made me think about the role of landscape architects in making new landscape designs and choosing a specific set of plants that satisfy human taste and ecological needs. What would plants want the designer to do to that specific landscape condition? This curiosity is evidence of a new shift in my plant thinking.
Previously, I used to think that trees lived in an environment more as individual entities, and they were self-sufficient in making their own food and living their own lives. While reading the chapter “Rooted in the World,” I came to know that from the very beginning
of the plant’s life, it needs to expose its physiology to the surrounding environment, and this is the only way it can come out of its seed-life and begin to orient to the surrounding environment.2 Holdrege also elaborates on how plants grow, shoot into the air, and root into the soil to position themselves in a broad terrestrial context where they will keep collecting life-sustaining elements for the rest of their lives. These new thoughts helped me change my previous ideas of plant life and look at them differently. Interestingly, we cannot see most of the plant’s bodies under the ground, which establishes an intimate connection with their soil environment and the surrounding plant community. The reading informs me that plant life can only be sustained when it allows its stems and roots to set up interactions with its surroundings and lets the environment support its growth. For instance, Trees take the water and nutrition from the soil and release chemicals that enrich the soil in return, making the relationship strongly mutual. Holdrege also elaborated on the situatedness of plants in which they become an integral part of a place. In this way, “Place” for plants becomes more than just a “location”—instead, it becomes an entanglement that provides the plant’s needs and is reshaped by the plant’s life. This concept of ‘Place’ for plants, as a dynamic and reciprocal relationship between the plant and its environment, is a new insight for me into the plant’s life and the place where they belong.
The drawings I made in the Fitzroy Garden and Gresswell forests, two contrasting environments, were intended to capture plant life above ground, as well as imagine the underground root conditions. The Fitzroy Garden, with its urban setting, and the Gresswell forests, with their natural, untouched beauty, provided unique perspectives on plant life and its relationship with place. The readings helped me understand how plants establish their
relationships with surrounding environments and plants, which eventually inspired me to observe plants closely and speculate underground in my drawings. Moreover, the onsite discussion by Alistair Kirkpatrick about the history, geology, plant species, and soil features of both sites gave me more insights into the imagination of the underground and made me critical of my drawings. One specific insight I gained from Alistair was the importance of soil composition in determining the types of plants that thrive in a particular area. While drawing the underground conditions, I was always curious about how plants connect with the shared networks of root systems and how they find ways to ground moisture and nutrients. While comparing the two parallel sites, I considered the plant’s characters and form in these two places. I observed how their distinctive characteristics shaped the essence of the places, defining the light, texture, and other environmental qualities. These insights and observations are an addition to my plant knowledge that will inform my future practice and help me think about plants in a new way.
This exercise, a fascinating experiment in attention and detail, took an unexpected turn when my classmate Zixi Pan and I sat facing each other. As we began to draw each other’s faces , setting time for consecutive periods of one, five, and ten minutes , we were both surprised to find that time seemed to pass faster once we started drawing. The outcome drawings, capturing our evolving attention to the details over various periods, were a delightful surprise,
each one a unique reflection of our artistic journey. My drawings showed more details when I drew the same drawing several times over a longer period.
This drawing task was a transformative experience that enhanced my capacity to observe, draw the ephemeral qualities of a place over time, and engage with the world. These drawings were produced on the same spot near the Queen Victoria Market at the premise of St Mary Star of the Sea, and each took over one hour to finish. During these drawings, I sat on the grass and marked the location so that I could always find the same place
to position myself close to the subject. The first thing I observed while drawing this same frame is that the light was constantly changing its intensity, and so was the shadow, and eventually, each frame captured different qualities of light over time. As I drew the same frame for times over two days, I noticed the change in my focus on the subject matter each time, and the details on different components, like shadows, textures, and plant details,
varied accordingly. The drawing series not only trained me to observe the same thing over a more extended period without any distractions but also inspired me to work on my observation skills and drawing simultaneously.
The exercise was a journey of observing and drawing a plant adjacent to the watercourse in pairs. It was a process of iterative gaze and recording, where we drew what appeared above the ground and what we conjured in the imagination of the underground. The more we observed the same plant, the more it unfolded its many aspects, revealing a fascinating story of its life and its environment.
The variation in size, shapes, the veins of the leaves,
and the flow of space in between leaves painted a vivid picture of how the plant established its relationship with the changing light and air. The reading further deepened my understanding of the plant’s life as a living entity in the environment and a part of the plant’s community. The idea that their roots join the network of mycorrhizal fungi and communicate with other plants was a revelation. These interdependencies among the plants of the same
place helped us to understand the soil environment and conjure the life underground. One particular hurdle I encountered was determining the best position for observation and drawing. I often found myself venturing down to the stream for a closer look at the stem beneath the large leaves. These challenges, however, only deepened our appreciation for the complexity and resilience of the plant life we were studying.
The plant I studied is a Taro Plant. I learned from the observation that the plants needed a place close to a water source to get enough moisture. It can grow well in shaded places and usually grows in bush form. The variations in heights of the stems and leaves indicate the plants’ lifespan (there are some dried stems beneath as an indication of the passing time ). The plant exposes its body to the physical and climatic conditions of the place so that it can respond to elements like light, air, moisture, and nutrients. The plants adjusted their growth to achieve a balance at the edge of the stone by allowing growth on the opposite side of the stream.
Designed Landscape at Fitzroy Garden Plants from different parts of the world are collected here as an expression of civic life and colonial powers.
Alistair’s Discussion on the history, geology, plants species, hydrology and soil formation of the Fitzroy Garden was very enlightening for us.
Alistair Commenting on our Drawings. Considering the soil types and layers, how accurate are our speculations, and how can they be improved? PLAN of the creek in Fitzroy Garden showing the Section Line of our measured Drawings
The act of measuring was not just a technical exercise, but a practical tool that helped me to understand the relative position of the plants of various heights and species in the site along with the intermediate spaces. This process revealed how plants of different heights and characters contributed to the diversity of the section and how our body can act as a tool in measuring the surrounding environments.
Engaging in the process of observing anything over a period of time, and revisiting the same subjects repeatedly, is a thrilling method for uncovering new aspects beyond our existing knowledge. This task of reading, observation drawings, and measuring has enlightened me about plants as integrated entities within their community and environment. This newfound understanding will significantly influence my future practice in Landscape
Design, as I now consider the underground life and connections of plants, as well as the environmental conditions that shape their existence.
This exercise continues the same observational method of drawing above-ground and imaging below-ground in a different site context of the Gresswell forest.
Despite being part of the same Ecological Vegetation Classes(EVC) as Fitzroy Garden and having a similar urban context, Gresswell Forest offers a different history and development. Hence, we found very different patterns in plant species and a distinctive sense of the place. We
found very dispersed under-story plants and scattered canopy in the Gresswell forest compared to Fitzroy Garden. The forest floor did not have a dense grass cover, which indicated the presence of local animals like Kangaroos. The study drawings from Gresswell Forest also offer a very different nature of ground condition than Fitzroy Garden, with unique features such as the different depths of A and B horizons. The discussion and insights
shared by Alistair and Fiona, whose contributions were invaluable, guided me in understanding underground conditions and imagining the roots of plants. Interestingly, the section drawings of the plants and their rooting system eventually represent more forest-like environments of Gresswell, building a distinctive character from Fitzroy Garden.
The combined section drawing (my group-mate Xi Fu and I) reflects the insights we have gained about plant life and its entanglements with the site context. The drawings from Gresswell Forest represent a complete shift from the previous drawings of the Fitzroy Garden, as they show more elaborate ground conditions in response to the new information we gained from readings and discussions on site.
The insights and understandings from the reading, field trips, group work, spending time on the site, and observing while drawing are new additions to my experience and knowledge of plant thinking. These experiences will help me understand any place in my future practice in terms of the entanglements with the plant’s life and their underground conditions. Besides, working with other classmates to learn and compile a body of work is another learning from plant thinking. At the end of the course, we all come together, helping each other to arrange our collective work of drawings and prepare for the exhibition. I, as a part of the whole class, enjoyed my role of arranging my group work as well as individual drawings and selecting papers for the print works. This experience is another invaluable addition that can help me participate in collective work in my future practice.
Pollen, Michael. The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World. New York: Random House, 2002.
Holdrege, Craig. Thinking Like a Plant: A Living Science for Life. Great Barrington: Lindisfarne Press, 2013.
Busato, Macrina. “The Fascinating Social Network of Trees: The Wood Wide Web.” Medium,2020. Accessed April 15, 2024. https://medium.com/lotus-fruit/the-fascinating-social-network-of-trees-the-wood-wide-web875af1fe36d0.
Kirkpatrick, Alistair. “Field Trip: Week 7 Lecture”, ARCH1363. Plant Thinking. Melbourne: RMIT University, April 26, 2024.
Mills, Sunny. “What plants talk about”. December 7, 2017. YouTube video. Accessed April 15, 2024. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=dQLAdZdZMyM .