The ability to choose wisely is one hallmark of intelligence. The Latin root of “intelligence,” interlegere, means “to choose between.” Dodders are wonderfully fun for watching a plant make a choice: they prefer tomatoes to wheat, for example. Wheat is hard to climb, and not particularly juicy. When a dodder seedling is grown between a wheat and a tomato, it begins to circle the air almost as soon as it pops out of the soil. After a few perambulations it turns, with determination: it has noted its neighbors from afar. Now like a baby snake it crosses the air, aimed directly at the tomato,
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