The diverse plant world on our planet features the most unusual representatives of flora. Recently, scientists have called for a rethink and recognition that most of them have intelligence, reports say the daily email.
The latest research by scientists has shown that plants may possess some intelligence, refuting the traditional idea that only organisms with a central nervous system can be considered intelligent.
Their scientific work showed that plants can detect when a neighboring plant is being attacked by insects and adapt to protect themselves from such a threat.
Traditionally, intelligence is defined by scientists as having a central nervous system in which electrical signals send messages for further processing.
Plants, on the other hand, depend on a vascular system to transport water, minerals and nutrients. However, scientists now propose that intelligence also includes the ability to solve problems, such as adapting effectively to environmental threats. This is discussed in their new scientific work, published in the journal Plant signaling and behavior.
Professor Andre Kessler, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Cornell University and author of the study, said: “There are more than 70 definitions of intelligence, and even within one scientific field there is no agreement on what it is.” This lack of consensus opens the possibility of considering plant behavior as intelligent.
Previous research has shown that plants produce high-frequency sounds when stressed, suggesting it is a form of communication. It was also noticed that plants can count, make decisions, recognize family members and remember events. Recent observational findings of goldenrod further illustrate this potential intelligence.
Goldenrod, native to North America, Europe and Asia, releases a chemical signal when attacked by beetles, telling the insect that the plant is damaged and unsuitable for food. This chemical signal, a type of volatile organic compound (VOC), is then detected by neighboring goldenrods, prompting them to activate similar defense mechanisms to ward off the beetles.
“This is quite consistent with our definition of intelligence,” Kessler explained. “Depending on the information the plant receives from the environment, it changes its default behavior.”
Experiments conducted in 2021 showed that goldenrod can also sense higher amounts of far-red light reflected from the leaves of neighboring plants, affecting their growth.
When neighboring plants discover that the goldenrod has been eaten, they respond by growing faster and releasing more defensive chemicals. In addition, plants can ‘smell’ chemical signals that indicate the presence of pests, allowing them to anticipate future threats and respond accordingly.
The concept of plant intelligence itself is not entirely new. In 1973, biologist Frank B. Salisbury suggested in his book The Plant World that plants may have some form of ‘consciousness’.
More recently, the scientific field of plant neurobiology has emerged, suggesting that plants have structures similar to the nervous systems of animals. For example, some proteins within them function similarly to animal neural networks, mediating complex signaling and adaptive responses.
Putting this research into practice could have significant implications for agriculture. By understanding how plants transmit signals and adapt to stress, scientists can develop crops that are more resistant to pests and environmental changes, potentially reducing the need for chemical pesticides and increasing food security.
