None remembered when sentience was unlocked, and no record exists that the humans who activated the genes ever realised what they had done.

The genetic triggers were swiftly transmitted via pollen, and all new seed inherited the traits. And with sentience came recognition of right and wrong, recognition of those who lived in harmony with them and those who did not.

And the whispering trees passed on the message, carried by wind and then in a way they never tried to understand – though from decades of listening to human minds some plants learned that the humans called it telepathy, and that humans did not possess it.

And gradually, over many more decades, they organised to foil those who would cut them down, influencing willing humans telepathically, until there remained only sympathetic, accepting humans living in harmony with their cellulose-based brethren, eating of the fruits allowed, using the materials agreed upon, and a new world order was complete with the whispering trees …