Culinary applications, while modest, reveal its versatility: the sharp, citrusy leaves brighten salads, soups, and sauces, a subtle echo of its wild vitality. The most common way to cook sorrel, across many different cultures, is in soup. Green borscht is an Eastern European spring delicacy, usually garnished with sour cream, hard-boiled egg and/or croutons. French versions of the soup usually involve liberal amounts of cream and butter, both of which serve to temper its distinctive bite. Sorrel is also used in Vietnamese cuisine, known as Rau Chua, and is believed to have been introduced by the French during their colonisation. It is used in herb-heavy plates such as soups or spring rolls. In some countries, people use sheep’s sorrel and garden sorrel to coagulate milk in cheese-making.

Who decides which plants deserve to flourish and which should be eradicated? This fundamental question drives Sensorial Ingestions, a workshop series fostering collective transdisciplinary research on plant flux within anthropogenic habitats. Led by Grace Gloria Denis and Kita Rancaño Ward, these workshops explore the complex relationship between plant species and their seed dispersal mechanisms, with particular focus on species commonly classified as “weeds.” The series critically examines the fluctuating values attributed to these plants, questioning the societal constructs that determine their worth. As certain plant species oscillate between being considered resources or undesirables, how do we navigate this value dichotomy? Who determines what constitutes a “weed” and its right to propagate?

The pilot investigation centered on sheep’s sorrel (Rumex acetosella), a broad-leaved herbaceous perennial whose name etymologically references the Old French surele. Rooted in the Latin sūrus, meaning “sour,” – an homage to its tangy, lemon-like flavor this plant inhabits acidic, sandy soils. Sheep’s sorrel thrives in pastures, grasslands, and sites of ecological disturbance, particularly favoring temperate regions. This resilient species thrives as a pioneer plant, providing forage for wildlife while its deep-rooted taproots stabilize soils, rendering it an ecological ally in erosion control. Its tenacious spread and capacity to dominate degraded landscapes has earned it a reputation as a weed in some agricultural settings. Despite its contentious status, sorrel occupies a vital niche, offering nectar to pollinators and shelter to insects. This species occupies the liminal space between valuable wild edible and persistent agricultural pest—a plant whose worth shifts depending on context, culture, and need. With its rich history spanning medieval herbalism, colonial culinary exchange, and contemporary foraging practices, sheep’s sorrel exemplifies how human relationships with plants are neither fixed nor universal.

A plant specimen with long thin stems and pointy butter knife shaped leaves against a black background.
Rumex acetosella Ayotte, Giles, 1948. Rooted in antiquity, sheep’s sorrel was esteemed in traditional and Indigenous herbalism, celebrated for its diuretic, anti-inflammatory, and detoxifying properties. In medieval herbalism, it symbolised purification, playing a pivotal role in folk remedies and later gaining prominence in the controversial Essiac tea, heralded by some as a cancer treatment. The plant’s arrow-shaped leaves, though small, are a rich source of vitamin C and were once foraged to stave off scurvy.

Through a methodology of sensory translation processes, the ongoing research project converts ecological data into experiential encounters through taste, smell, sound, and touch. Sensorial Ingestions recognizes that understanding plant flux, gleaned with scientific tools and parameters, can be nourished by varying forms of multisensory engagement, which can, in turn, reveal the nuanced ways humans and plants can cohabit. Biologists, ecologists, and conservationists collaborate with the duo to transform taxonomic frameworks and population data into multisensory experiential encounters that reimagine how ecological data can be transmitted.

Examining wind-driven seed dispersal through data visualization and sensory translations, this initial investigation of sheep’s sorrel extended to an examination of how anthropogenic infrastructure influences and reshapes the dispersal and habitats of said plants. The proliferation of wind energy farms has saturated historically protected areas over the past decade, yet their ecological impacts remain insufficiently researched. This gap in research catalysed a speculative inquiry into how anthropogenic infrastructure shapes contemporary ecosystems.

A projection is displayed on a wall of a wind turbine. Sihlouettes of spectators are in the foreground.
“A novel ecosystem is a system of abiotic, biotic and social components (and their interactions) that, by virtue of human influence differ from those that prevailed historically, having a tendency to self-organise, and manifest novel qualities without intensive human management.” (Hobbs, Higgs and Hall, 2013)
Map Data sourced from “The Tortoise Table”, detailing Sorrell (rumex Map Data sourced from “The Tortoise Table”, detailing Sorrell (rumex Acetosella – Common Sheep’s Sorrel) sightings in the East Anglia region England, date range 2000-present “Wind energy farms have become a popular solution to produce green energy worldwide. Their development within protected areas has increased dramatically in the past decade, and the effects on the rare, endemic and threatened plant species (i.e., protected plant species), essential for habitat conservation and management, are little known. Only a few studies directly quantify the impacts of wind energy farms on them. Our study analyzes the impact of wind energy farms on rare, endemic, and threatened plant species in steppic habitats and their recovery potential over a ten-year period on a wind energy farm within the Dealurile Agighiolului Region, SE Romania).”

Sensorial Ingestions examined population data of Rumex acetosella spanning from 1950 to the present day along England’s east coast. Historical mapping revealed a striking pattern: sheep’s sorrel populations have shifted geographically, now clustering above and below densities of offshore wind farms. The observation of this spatial redistribution ignited questions about how human-engineered structures, ostensibly designed to address climate change, simultaneously alter the “historical” ecosystems they aim to protect.

Local-scale impact of wind energy farms on rare, endemic, and threatened plant species Published 19 May 2021: Corresponding author Paulina Anastasiu 1 Department of Botany & Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
A 10-year study in Romania’s Dealurile Agighiolului Natura 2000 site demonstrated that wind farm construction significantly reduced plant biodiversity, with less than 40% of rare and threatened species successfully recolonizing disturbed areas, while species turnover remained higher in undisturbed plots, indicating greater heterogeneity and more favorable conditions for seed dispersal. The research suggests that altered wind patterns from turbine operations may disrupt natural seed dispersal processes, underscoring the critical need for careful site selection and management practices in wind energy development to preserve plant biodiversity, particularly as climate change may further alter wind dynamics.

Speculation on wind turbines as inadvertent architects of novel ecosystems challenges our understanding of what constitutes a natural versus anthropogenic landscape, germinating questions about how climate solutions might be fundamentally reconfiguring which plants can grow where, and by extension, which species we encounter, value, or dismiss in our daily lives. As these infrastructures reshape seed dispersal patterns and species distributions, fundamental questions emerge about the evolution of foodscapes within the context of the Anthropocene. This speculative framework positions wind farms not merely as renewable energy solutions, but as active agents in creating the hybrid ecologies that will define our climatic future. The methodology of translating wind patterns into audible phenomena through a makeshift Aeolian harp emerged from a desire to render perceptible the atmospheric forces that carry seeds across landscapes, making tangible the invisible currents that facilitate long-distance dispersal and contribute to gene flow between spatially separated plant populations. The Aeolian harp stands as a unique musical phenomenon, producing ephemeral, sometimes indecipherable sounds, as the sole string instrument, animated exclusively by wind, and capable of producing only harmonic frequencies, captures passing currents. Sensorial Ingestions deliberately strayed from the realm of high-tech, veering instead towards the low-tech movement’s philosophy of renouncing complex, expensive technology, while seeking to critically examine the prevalence of techno-scientific approaches. This conceptual shift led to the construction of the aelioan harp, employing a stainless steel armature divergent from traditional wooden frames to explore alternative sonic resonances, combined with white cotton tape and Esparto grass—a ancient fiber harvested from Stipa tenacissima and Lygeum Spartum that has served human artisanal needs for seven millennia, with archaeological evidence dating back 7,000 years.

Leaf-underside of rumex acetosella, by Gilles San Martin, cropped by Kersti Nebelsiek.

The Aeolian harp exists at the intersection of natural force and human artifice, surrendering sonic agency to wind itself while transforming environmental conditions into spontaneous composition that challenges anthropocentric notions of creativity and control. Emerging in ancient Greece and refined through European Romantic traditions, the Aeolian harp operates on elegant simplicity: strings of varying tensions stretched across a resonating chamber respond to air currents, producing ethereal harmonics that shift with wind velocity and direction. Unlike conventional instruments requiring human touch, the Aeolian harp transforms environmental conditions into spontaneous composition, creating music that exists only in the present moment of atmospheric encounter. Named after the Greek god of winds, this instrument gained particular resonance among Romantic poets and has haunted human imagination since antiquity, embodying our complex relationship with atmospheric forces beyond our control, suggesting a model of collaboration with non-human agencies. For Sensorial Ingestions, the makeshift harp serves as both research instrument and conceptual bridge, translating wind patterns shaped by offshore turbines into audible experience. The resulting soundscape becomes data, or a sensory mapping of how industrial infrastructure modifies the very medium through which seeds travel and ecosystems restructure themselves. In capturing wind’s voice as it moves through landscapes simultaneously natural and engineered, the instrument renders audible the invisible forces reshaping contemporary ecology.

Aeloian harp played in proximity to wind farms west of London to harvest recordings.

As climate change intensifies and traditional foodscapes transform, questions about plant value become increasingly urgent. In a world where we will need to feed 9 billion people by 2050, species habitually dismissed as “weeds” may prove essential for food security, undulating from a categorical nuisance to a robust resource.  As traditionally and more conventionally known edible species face extinction pressures, will our taxonomies of worth shift? How do we define ecosystem integrity when the landscapes themselves are products of ongoing climate intervention?

Sensorial Ingestions reminds us that every landscape is a product of ongoing negotiations between human intentions and plant agency. The winds carrying seeds across our altered environments are not just natural phenomena—they are part of the complex systems through which humans and plants continuously shape the world together. Emerging from this understanding is the fundamental challenge to assess, unlearn, and shift fixed taxonomies of worth. The boundaries between valuable and unwanted plants prove to be permeable membranes rather than rigid walls, shifting with agricultural practices, ecological knowledge, climate pressures, and cultural needs. A plant’s status as pest or ally depends less on its intrinsic properties than on the particular assemblage of forces—economic, ecological, aesthetic—that surround it at any given moment.

As climate change intensifies and traditional foodscapes transform, questions about plant value become increasingly urgent. In a world where we will need to feed 9 billion people by 2050, species habitually dismissed as “weeds” may prove essential for food security, undulating from a categorical nuisance to a robust resource.  As traditionally and more conventionally known edible species face extinction pressures, will our taxonomies of worth shift? How do we define ecosystem integrity when the landscapes themselves are products of ongoing climate intervention?

Sensorial Ingestions reminds us that every landscape is a product of ongoing negotiations between human intentions and plant agency. The winds carrying seeds across our altered environments are not just natural phenomena—they are part of the complex systems through which humans and plants continuously shape the world together. Emerging from this understanding is the fundamental challenge to assess, unlearn, and shift fixed taxonomies of worth. The boundaries between valuable and unwanted plants prove to be permeable membranes rather than rigid walls, shifting with agricultural practices, ecological knowledge, climate pressures, and cultural needs. A plant’s status as pest or ally depends less on its intrinsic properties than on the particular assemblage of forces—economic, ecological, aesthetic—that surround it at any given moment.

Photos courtesy of David R. Clements

An Angry red covers the sky, the waves are rough, the water is rising, the birds are panicking. Swirling winds wrap around the destruction of the Earth Ecosystems, the enslavement of non-humans, as well as wars, social inequality, racial discrimination, and the domination of women. The sixth mass extinction of species is underway, chemical pollution is percolating into aquifers and umbilical cords, climate change is accelerating, and the global justice remains iniquitous. Violence spreads through the crew, chained bodies are thrown overboard, sinking into the marine abyss, while brown hands search for hope. The skies thunder loudly: the world-ship is in the midst of a modern tempest. In the face of this storm, which finds horizons hidden behind clouds, vision blurred by the salty waters, and cried covered up by the unjust gusts, what course can be taken?

Malcolm Ferdinand, Decolonial Ecology

Ferdinand’s conceptualization of the “double fracture”—the separation between colonial histories and environmental narratives—reveals how this disjuncture produces fragmented ecological knowledge that systematically obscures the dialectical relationship between social injustice and environmental degradation. His theoretical framework for decolonial ecology, which centers the agency of both human and non-human actors, serves as an imperative reference for Sensorial Ingestions’ interrogation of taxonomies that categorize certain flora as “weeds,” challenging discourses that determine botanical legitimacy within anthropogenic landscapes.

The redistribution of plant populations in proximity to wind-energy related infrastructure reveals how climate interventions generate unintended consequences that ripple through biological communities in ways that are now becoming further discernible. These new geographies of growth suggest that the landscapes of the future will be neither purely natural nor entirely artificial, but rather hybrid territories shaped by the entanglement of human engineering and botanical mobility. This hybridity beckons the cultivation of new forms of attention – ones calibrated to nuanced negotiations between engineered systems and interspecies adaptation. The sensory methodologies explored in this research offer pathways toward receptive modes of ecological engagement—ways of listening to environmental change that move beyond purely quantitative data toward embodied forms of knowledge. When wind becomes music and population shifts become perceptible patterns, we begin to sense the subtle communications occurring between species across scales of space and time.

Such attentiveness becomes increasingly crucial as environmental transformation accelerates. The plants dismissed today as weeds may become tomorrow’s essential crops, medicines, or soil builders; however, recognizing their potential requires relinquishing the illusion of categorical separations between desirable from undesirable species. Instead, we must learn to work within the dynamic tensions of multispecies landscapes in which value is always emergent, contextual, and contested. The collaborative workshops that form the heart of the Sensorial Ingestions model this different approach—creating spaces where scientific data mingles with sensory experience, where community knowledge intersects with academic research, where the boundaries between expert and participant dissolve into collective inquiry. Each iteration convenes land stewards, scientists, and community members to explore one plant alongside various seed dispersal mechanisms, inclusive of atmospheric currents, hydrological networks, and entomological vectors, to understand how plants move through and shape these shifting habitats.  These workshops do not propose a hypothesis, nor a solution, but rather nourish spaces for collective inquiry,  suggesting that understanding plant-human relationships requires not just new technologies or policies, but new social forms organized around curiosity rather than control.

Ultimately, the diverse dispersal mechanisms that facilitate the movement of seeds across transforming landscapes carry more than botanical genetics – they carry with them possibilities for myriad modes of being in relation with the more-than-human world. Germinating the capacity to interpret these multi-modal communications may prove essential for navigating the unprecedented ecological conditions that lie ahead. The question is not who decides which plants merit cultivation, but rather how we might participate more wisely in the ongoing negotiations between the anthropogenic infrastructure and botanical agency that are already reconstituting our shared planetary habitation.

SHEEP’S SORREL INCENSE RECIPE 

Ingredients

  • 1 large scoop dehydrated or oven-dried sheep’s sorrel
  • 2 large scoops activated charcoal powder
  • 1 small scoop guar gum
  • 1 small scoop benzoin resin powder
  • 20 drops essential oil of choice (preferably a citrusy scent in homage to sheep sorrel)
  • 2-3 tablespoons distilled water (as needed)

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Wooden spoon or spatula
  • Measuring spoons
  • Incense molds or rolling surface
  • Gloves (recommended when handling charcoal)

Preparation

  1. Prepare workspace: Cover work surface with newspaper or parchment paper. Wear gloves to prevent charcoal staining.
  2. Mix dry ingredients: In a large bowl, combine sheep’s sorrel, charcoal powder, guar gum, benzoin resin powder, and makko powder (if using). Mix thoroughly with wooden spoon.

Making the Incense

  1. Add essential oil: Create a small well in the dry mixture and add essential oil drops. Mix gently to distribute evenly.
  2. Add water gradually: Slowly add distilled water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing constantly until mixture holds together when squeezed but isn’t overly wet. The consistency should be like damp sand.
  3. Form incense:
    • For sticks: Roll mixture into thin logs about pencil thickness
    • For cones: Shape into small cone forms
    • For loose incense: Leave as coarse powder
  4. Dry thoroughly: Place formed incense on parchment paper in a well-ventilated area. Allow to dry for 24-48 hours, turning occasionally.