本文從生態女性主義的觀點,尤其是當中的植物轉向來檢視植物和人類的關係,試圖說明植物在博文(Margot Berwin)的小說《溫室女子和欲望九植物》(Hothouse Flowers and the Nine Plants of Desire)中不僅是欲望和凝視的客體,本身也具有欲望,與其他物種共繁共榮。本文首先從女性、植物、欲望的角度論述生態女性主義中植物轉向的脈絡談起,並分析生態性愛運動和生態情慾主義中提出自然(植物)與愛欲的意義。接著在小說文本中分析女性等同於植物的譬喻問題和植物與女性在男性的凝視下成為欲望被操控的客體,以及其間涉及的欲望和生物政治議題。第三部分則著重女主角在追尋自我療癒的過程中,植物與植物靈如何使其圓滿,並重新定義欲望。以此推論女主角並非如批評家所言是個對愛情欲望無法控制自己、甚至失去自我的女性。不論是在充滿靈視的夢境裡、還是亦夢亦醒的墨西哥熱帶雨林裡,植物引導、召喚、啟動欲望,讓女主角踏上探索自我的生命之旅。
Critical Plant Studies are on the rise, among which this essay mainly focuses on the relationships among women, plants, desire, and spirit. Inspired by queer ecofeminist Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands's ideas of a vegetal turn in ecofeminism, this essay attempts to analyze Margot Berwin's Hothouse Flowers and the Nine Plants of Desire by rethinking plants as both sexual objects and sexual subjects to thrive with other species. The first part follows Sandilands's question of why eroticism has not been taken seriously in environmental ethics and discusses the eco-sexual movement and Terry Tempest Williams's notion of eco-eroticism to shed light on the hidden aspects of the novel. The second part examines women and plants are inherently linked and the problems of plant biopolitics in the novel. Finally, drawing upon Pam Montgomery's ideas in Plant Spirit Healing, the last part analyzes how plant spirit helps the heroine understand the significance of multiple self-identifications and redefines the word "desire" from the perspective of shamanism. Thus, the essay clarifies the relationship among women, desires, and plants in the novel and the problems that this adventure may cause and ends with an emphasis that the heroine embarks on a journey of self-exploration with the assistance, evocation, and activation of plants.