Although electrical and chemical signaling inside plants are well established, assertions about plant cognition and possible consciousness are highly contentious.
The author claims the plant is not “simply reacting,” but it is “making meaning” through inner awareness, perhaps similarly to an octopus whose consciousness seems spread among its arms. Such astonishing findings have led the book's author, among others, to controversially refer to the study of these processes as “plant neurobiology.” Calvo goes even further, suggesting that plants are cognitive beings and may have “diffused consciousness.” When a vine sends out tendrils, it does so with intent, he writes, using light and chemicals to explore and then home in on a target. No longer can we think of plants as passive or inert they are continually sensing and responding to their environments. Unlike the hierarchical organization of nerves in animal brains, though, message signaling within plants is diffuse, ramifying through modular tissues and netlike vascular conduits. The effects of anesthetics on plant movement have been known since the 19th century, and recent research shows that they block electrical signals in plant cells, just as they do in animals. Networks of chemical messages complement these electrical connections.
Plants don't have nerve cells, but they do thrum with inner electrical signals that connect adjacent cells and transmit information along roots and stems. The same drugs quiet the gyrations of pea tendrils and the clenching of Venus flytraps. But after a few minutes in a bell jar suffused with anesthetic fumes, Mimosa becomes unresponsive.
This response takes mere seconds-an excellent defense against herbivores. A poke from a human finger usually causes the plants' leaves to shrink and fold against the stem. In a provocative new book, Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence, philosopher Paco Calvo, with writer Natalie Lawrence, explores these questions, urging us not to fall into the “zoocentric trap” of believing that intelligence, agency and even consciousness are found only in animals.Ĭonsider the movements of Mimosa plants, for example. Is the potted cactus on your windowsill a cognitive being? When the lettuce in your sandwich was cut from its roots, did it feel pain? Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence A controversial invitation to reconsider green intelligence
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