An Intelligent Network of Collaboration

In nature, everything is intertwined in the smallest to the largest networks. In the invisible realm, synapses connect billions of neurons, sustaining thoughts, instincts, and movements. In leaves, delicate veins branch out into increasingly finer paths, carrying water and nutrients that feed the entire body of a plant. From the microscopic to the immense, life is woven into intelligent and interdependent patterns, where each thread sustains the whole.

Aristotle was one of the first naturalists to classify living beings. In 343 BCE, he proposed a simple division: beings that move are animals, and those that do not are plants. Though outdated, this classification is enticing: So, do plants move after all?

While plants do not walk, they certainly do move. And they do so very well! With the help of other beings, they cross territories, leap distances, and traverse time.

Throughout evolutionary history, intricate networks of relationships have formed. These encounters help life forms move towards genetic variability and new spaces to occupy.

Plants and animals have formed alliances to keep moving, and this cooperative choreography is called coevolution: a path of mutual adaptation and interdependence.

These relationships are so finely tuned that they can be organized into pollination syndromes, which are sets of floral characteristics that attract specific pollinators. There are tubular flowers that fit long beaks, like the hummingbirds'.

There are petals that act as natural landing strips. Under ultraviolet light, some petals reveal patterns that are invisible to our eyes, but clear to bees. These secret designs are flight signals that lead them straight to the nectar and pollen.

After pollination, the flower gives way to fruit. The landscape changes. It's time for new alliances, and different agents enter the scene. Now the seeds must go!

In the natural environment, seeds seek new spaces to germinate far away from the mother plant while avoiding competition for light, water, and nutrients. In order to make this trip, many rely on animal dispersers. At Inhotim, in addition to dispersal efforts, there is continuous seed collection and storage work to protect the future of various species.

As with the grumichama, the different parts of the plants where fruits grow are not random, and neither are the various colors, flavors, aromas, textures, and shapes they come in. Every feature is strategically tailored to the dispersers. This is so consistent, in fact, that these features can be organized into dispersal syndromes: sets of characteristics that favor the success of seeds in conquering new territories.

Seeds and dispersers find their perfect match through morphological, chemical, and nutritional adaptations. Large fruits attract large mammals, while small ones, like the jabuticaba, draw birds of various beak shapes. There are also some whose intense aromas are irresistible to bats.

The copaiba tree (Copaifera langsdorffii) produces fruit in abundance. Its dark seeds are surrounded by an orange aril rich in carbohydrates. At the right time, the fruits open and offer this nutritious resource to a variety of dispersers. When feeding on the aril, they swallow the seeds, which continue their journey and later return to the soil, regurgitated or eliminated in feces.

Tom Jobim famously sang that love is essential, and that it is impossible to be happy on one's own (fundamental é mesmo o amor, é impossível ser feliz sozinho). Similarly, nature has a beautiful and delicate way of teaching us that, indeed, companionship is key to a good life.

In tropical forests, interaction is where the magic happens. May we have interactions guided by generous exchanges, diversity, and cooperation, as other species have done for millennia.