"In the deep shadow of the porch A slender bind-weed springs, And climbs, like airy acrobat, The trellises, and swings And dances in the golden sun In fairy loops and rings."

"An ill weed grows apace."

"Still must I on, for I am as a weed, Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam, to sail Where'er the surge may sweep."

"Great weeds do grow apace."

"Call us not weeds, we are flowers of the sea."

"Weeds don't know they're weeds."

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."

"The summer's flower is to the summer sweet, Though to itself it only live and die, But if that flower with base infection meet, The basest weed outbraves his dignity; For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds."

"The hawthorn I will pu' wi' its lock o' siller gray, Where, like an aged man, it stands at break o' day."

"The hawthorn-trees blow in the dew of the morning."

"There is a Thorn,—it looks so old, In truth, you'd find it hard to say How it could ever have been young, It looks so old and gray. Not higher than a two years child It stands erect, this aged Thorn; No leaves it has, no prickly points; It is a mass of knotted joints, A wretched thing forlorn. It stands erect, and like a stone With lichens is it overgrown."

"The Hawthorn whitens; and the juicy Groves Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees, Till the whole leafy Forest stands displayed, In full luxuriance, to the sighing gales."

"In hawthorn-time the heart grows light."

"Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade To shepherds looking on their silly sheep Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?"

"And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale."

"The hawthorn-bush, with seats beneath the shade For talking age and whispering lovers made!"

"Yet, all beneath the unrivall'd rose, The lowly daisy sweetly blows; Tho' large the forest's monarch throws His army shade, Yet green the juicy hawthorn grows, Adown the glade."

"Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale."

"Then sing by turns, by turns the Muses sing; Now hawthorns blossom."

"Yet walk with me where hawthorns hide The wonders of the lane."

"A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart."

""Or he might say: 'Whereas some honorable recluses and brahmins, while living on food offered by the faithful, continuously cause damage to seed and plant life — to plants propagated from roots, stems, joints, buddings, and seeds — the recluse Gotama abstains from damaging seed and plant life.'"

"Bryophytes therefore can reveal information about how the first plants adapted in their conquest of the terrestrial environment"

"Plants and plant-eaters co-evolved. And plants aren't the passive partners in the chain of terrestrial life. Hence today's Pop Ecology movement is quite wrong in believing that plants are happy to fill their role as fodder for herbivores in a harmonious and perfectly balanced ecosystem. A birch tree doesn't feel cosmic fulfillment when a moose munches its leaves; the tree species, in fact, evolves to fight the moose, to keep the animal's munching lips away from vulnerable young leaves and twigs. In the final analysis, the merciless hand of natural selection will favor the birch genes that make the tree less and less palatable to the moose in generation after generation. No plant species could survive for long by offering itself as unprotected fodder."

"O, the Shamrock, the green, immortal Shamrock! Chosen leaf Of Bard and Chief, Old Erin's native Shamrock."

"I'll seek a four-leaved shamrock in all the fairy dells, And if I find the charmèd leaves, oh, how I'll weave my spells!"

"To me the meanest flower that blows can give/ Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

"when you know the plants, you just feel more at home wherever you go"

"People have forgotten that plants were once regarded as our oldest teachers"

"In some Native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us."

"Our indigenous herbalists say to pay attention when plants come to you; they’re bringing you something you need to learn."

"Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?"

"Using the word enlightenment in a wider sense than the conventionally accepted one, we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants... they are, of course, temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness. Their special significance and the reason why humans feel such fascination for and affinity with them can be attributed to their ethereal quality."

"One morning just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun. Prior to this momentous event that heralds an evolutionary transformation in the life of plants, the planet had already been covered in vegetation for millions of years... Much later, those delicate and fragrant beings we call flowers would come to play an essential part in the evolution of consciousness of another species. Humans would increasingly be drawn to and fascinated by them. As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose for them, that is to say, was not linked in some way to survival. They provided inspiration to countless artists, poets, and mystics..."

"Some to the holly hedge Nestling repair; and to the thicket some; Some to the rude protection of the thorn."

"Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven."

"Pun-provoking thyme."