Plant Behaviour and Intelligence

by Anthony J. Trewavas

This book provides a convincing argument for the view that whole cells and whole plants growing in competitive wild conditions show aspects of plant behaviour that can be accurately described as 'intelligent'. Trewavas argues that behaviour, like intelligence, must be assessed within the constraints of the anatomical and physiological framework of the organism in question. The fact that plants do not have centralized nervous systems for example, does not exclude intelligent behaviour. Outside the human dimension, culture is thought largely absent and fitness is the biological property of value. Thus, solving environmental problems that threaten to reduce fitness is another way of viewing intelligent behaviour and has a similar meaning to adaptively variable behaviour. The capacity to solve these problems might be considered to vary in different organisms, but variation does not mean absence. By extending these ideas into a book that allows a critical and amplified discussion, the author hopes to raise an awareness of the concept of purposive behaviour in plants.

Genres: Biology, Science

291 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 2014

About the author

Anthony J. Trewavas is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh, best known for his research in the fields of plant physiology and molecular biology.

Reviews

[Rama Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plant Neurobiology

Adaptive information processing is a crucial evolutionary process in biological systems. Cells and tissues/organs in an organism function cooperatively as one complete biological machinery through which biological information flows. The author emphasizes the work of Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock who expounded the idea that a biological cell integrates all information and responsible for cell-cell communication.

Although plants do not have a central nervous system or peripheral neurons, but they have intelligence. They perceive their surroundings and actively compete for limited resources and perform cost-benefit analysis. They take appropriate adaptive actions in response to environmental stimuli with their integrated signaling and communicative systems. Thus, plants adapt to their environment and evolved with different sensory and regulatory systems; they have complex adaptive behavior. This contrasts with animals which select their environment to find food and mate, but they also migrate with changing seasons. Since plants are fixed to a location, their adaptive behavior is different. For example, plants must synthesize their own food using basic components from soil and atmosphere using sunlight. An additional short-coming stems from the fact that half of plant behavior is in the root system that grows below the ground against gravity.

Adaptive differences between plants and animals is illustrated in some of their functions. For example, quantum mechanics has become an integral part of biochemical phenomenon such as photosynthesis in plants, and in avian migration and navigational systems. It is known for almost a century that almost all biological and biochemical interactions are known to follow the laws of classical physics with quantum mechanics operating indirectly through the electronic structures of the molecules. But now life is known to be lot more intricate since quantum physics operates directly in living beings. This offers the full benefits of its laws making life highly efficient and self-sustaining. Birds and insects (butterflies) migrate hundreds and thousands of miles using internal navigation systems that also operate on the laws of quantum physics. Evolved species like mammals seem to lack this highly efficient mechanisms illustrate the complexity of adaptation, natural selection, heritable characteristics, variation, mutation, reproduction and gene flow.

This is one of the better books I have read in this field that puts plant neurobiology in perspective without using the term “neurobiology.” The author addresses plant memory and learning mechanisms by focusing on cell-cell communication and plant behavior. Plants evolve just like animals, and experiments demonstrate that they have memory, intelligence and learning behavior.

[fióka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stunning, compelling book on plant behaviour and intelligence. If you define intelligence as a problem solving capacity based on learning and memory (amongst others), and manage to get the omnipresent, heavily distorting human bias out of the way, then you might just realise that plants are truly intelligent beings. As are cells, bacteria, immune systems, and animals within their environment.
Trewavas' book isn't interesting just because he provides sound scientific evidence to support his claims. Trewavas is encouraging further research into different fields of plant science by exploring all those mechanisms and phenomena the existence of which we know of, but not their modus operandi nor (sometimes) the reason behind them.
The book relies heavily on biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and genetics, but also on systems properties and behaviour. It's definitely not written on a popular science level. If you would like a taste of the book, you might want to explore one of Trewavas' papers. This would be a good start: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/documen...

[Yanick Punter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly interesting stuff that I need to get back at.