Vol. 1 No. 2 (2024): Networks of Plants and the Language of Resonance in Science and Literature
Research Articles

Plant Parts: Vegetal Tropes and their Phytopoetic Resonances Across Botany and Culture

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  • Joela Jacobs
Joela Jacobs
University of Arizona
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/whppp.63845494909734

Published 2024-10-17

Keywords

  • Cultural Plant Studies,
  • Plant Parts,
  • Vegetal Tropes,
  • Phytopoetics,
  • Resonances

How to Cite

Jacobs, Joela. 2024. “Plant Parts: Vegetal Tropes and Their Phytopoetic Resonances Across Botany and Culture”. Plant Perspectives 1 (2):276-92. https://doi.org/10.3197/whppp.63845494909734.

Copyright (c) 2024 Joela Jacobs

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

While the natural sciences and the humanities were not always as separate as they appear today, language has connected them inextricably throughout history. Terminology for plant parts such as root, leaf, stem, flower and fruit have been operative across disciplines both as references to actual vegetal matter and as tropes that carry and continue to take on new metaphorical, allegorical, symbolic and topological meanings that go beyond the strictly botanical. By exemplarily examining five such tropes, this article maps these discursive networks of meaning and their phytopoetic resonances, showing how plants have shaped human thought and culture.

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