Mimosa plants have long inspired intrigue with their ability to move when touched. (Credit: Discover/Stipple engraving by R. Earlom, 1789, after G. Romney. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY)

When The Secret Life of Plants came out in 1973, Lincoln Taiz was a graduate student, just embarking on what would become a many-decades long career in plant biology. Plants, the book revealed, can make their own trace elements through fusion, just like the sun. More, they can recognize people. If someo