Plants Changing Species. The Latin Debate on the transmutatio plantarum

The change of plant species, that is the transmutatio plantarum, is a crucial topic, which raises significant philosophical problems. Here, almost unnoticed, hides a significant moment of the process of reception of Aristotelian philosophy. The question is addressed in the first book of the pseudo-Aristotelian De plantis, where some examples of plants are reported that change their own species. The Latin commentators of the De plantis who dealt with this issue showed a certain interpretative vivacity. Adam of Buckenfield states that plants can change their own species because their shape when compared to that of animals is closer to matter and therefore less perfect. Meanwhile, their matter is less determined than that of minerals. Among all commentators, Albert the Great and Roger Bacon show best the complexity of the question at hand, disclosing two opposite philosophical positions. In spite of Bacon, who admits just a mutation of accidents and denies the possibility that labor could change the form of a plant, Albert assigns to ars the possibility to change the form of plants.