Plant Physiology Activity : Video Review

Questions on Video

Based on the video shown during Tutorial # 1, answer the following questions. Keep answers brief and concise. If you are unable to answer all of the questions, submit whatever answers you have completed anyway.

1. What does Pollan mean when he says: "in a co-evolutionary relationship every subject is also an object, every object a subject?"

Pollan states that human controls plants and plants have been shaping humans. Therefore, he means that both the subject and the object affect each other's evolution by exerting selective pressures, such as domesticated plants which compete to gratify our desires of sweetness in case of apples, certain kind of beauty amongst tulips, control among potatoes, and intoxication among Cannabis for survival and expansion. A subject could be a Bee or even a human whereas an object would be a flower on which the bee feeds. A flower acts as a food provider for the bee whereas the bee acts as a mode of pollination for the flower. Humans fulfill their desires and act as a way of distributing seeds for such plants.

2. How did early Americans consume apples? When and why did that change?

Early Americans consumed apples as ‘hard cider' (main source of alcohol). The evolution strategy involves producing ever more sweetness. The change began when John Chapman (also known as Johnny Apple Seed) travelled around planting apples seedlings which produced a wide diversity of apples. Most of these new varieties turned out to be bitter, so they were used to make sweet apple cider by refrigerating it and was considered as a much safer and cleaner drink than water. But overtime, all forms of alcohol beverage became to be criticized as people were losing consciousness (i.e., were becoming drunk) than ever before. Later, the apples were considered as a great evil fruit because

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