Types and occurrences
Going back to my analogy, every Spirit being is a little like the master copy of a system – the original package. Thus we might have the ‘oxygen package’ or the ‘Michaelmas daisy package’. As I have explained however, the analogy breaks down, as the packages are responsible for their own development!
But every physical occurrence of that type of thing – that entity or spirit being or Intelligence - thus every oxygen molecule occurrence, and every Michaelmas daisy occurrence, for example, has a copy of the software – the package of functions.
BUT, it seems that Spirit beings, although themsleves having creative ability, do not endow every occurrence with that ability.
Thus occurrences of anything controlled by spirit beings generally speaking cannot communicate nor create. All communication with a flower is achieved via its Spirit being, not with the flower itself. You cannot communicate with a tree – an individual tree, you can only communicate with the Spirit being of that tree.
Rudolf Steiner – Elemental Spirits and the Plant World
… plants have a dreamlike sleeping consciousness for the physical world here but they have a group ego….
Note: The somewhat dreamlike sleeping impression an individual plant creates is due to the fact its processes are very slow working in comparison with ours – it appears to be undergoing very little activity, as such the functions of the plant are very difficult to determine – unless you are very well practised.