(Image courtesy of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology; via Wired.)

Behold the future avant-gardener, conceived at the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, “the world's only laboratory dedicated to plant intelligence,” as an extraterrestrial explorer to be deployed to Mars where “[i]ts roots would explore the soil, while power and telecommunications are provided by the main stem and the solar 'leaves.'”

And when its science mission has ended, it will then prune a full scale version of Versailles Gardens out of Martian bedrock.