The Psychopathy of Plants

During part of my lunch hour today I took a brief walk around the interior of the city.  (It was incredibly windy and rather rainy for much of the day, so I chose to stay inside versus brave the elements.)  Many shops have a TV playing on a non-stop loop; some stores choose to broadcast sports, others choose to air political discussions, and still others choose to show news programs.  I happened to pass by a salon that was displaying some sort of trial on their television; I very briefly caught sight of an expert witness testifying on the stand, along with her title in the caption at the bottom of the screen.  She was a forensic botanist.

While I didn’t stop my walk to watch the proceedings, the whole concept of a ‘forensic botanist’ did give me pause.  Immediately my mind envisioned a Venus flytrap on trial for consuming a moth; the moth’s parents sitting in the first row of the gallery, quietly crying as the expert witness is questioned; the flytrap dressing in its’ best suit, trying to look innocent as it is being questioned by the prosecution; the judge (in my mind, a walking stick) giving the jury (ants) final instructions… in literally less than a second, my mind had a whole insect-themed courtroom scene constructed and in action.

Now, a trial is certainly nothing to joke about.  (And most certainly not one that requires expert witnesses like those in a forensic profession.)  However, imagining the U.S. legal system applied to the animal kingdom (especially the insect realm) – now that, that’s funny.

At least, it made me laugh.  🙂

Stef