Recent studies show that plants may be able to make conscious decisions. Plant consciousness and sentience has been a heavily debated topic in the scientific community.
Experimenting Plant Consciousness
Researchers from the Minimal Intelligence Lab at the University of Murcia and the Rotman Institute of Philosophy placed 20 French bean plant pots in the center of a cylindrical booth. Plants were either accompanied by a garden cane planted 30cm away or alone.
Using time-lapse photography to track the plant's movements until the tip of the shoots contacted the canes, researchers observed the plants grew more predictable paths in the presence of the canes as if they could sense their presence in the vicinity and adjusted growth response.
The findings published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests that French bean plants exhibit some form of consciousness.
Is This Conscious Intentional?
There are plants that respond to external stimuli, some curl their leaves when touched, while some enclose and digest their prey in their leaves. These basic mechanisms of response have been well studied however answering the philosophical question of whether plants are intelligently choosing to execute such actions is a recent conundrum.
While researchers aren't claiming that the experiment definitively proved that plants act with conscious intent. Dr. Vicente Raja, a co-author of the study from Rotman Institute of Philosophy says the study shows how the beans were doing more than responding to external stimuli.
He says, Ït is one thing to react to a stimulus, such as light, it is another thing to perceive an object. If the movement of plants is controlled and affected by objects in the vicinity, then we are talking about more complex behaviors not reactions and we should be able to identify similar cognitive signatures to those observed in animals and humans."
Where Could Plant Consciousness Come From?
Established in 2006, plant neurobiology draw parallels between the electrical signaling in plants and the nervous systems of animals, to argue that plants are in fact capable of acting purposefully.
Plants use electrical signals in two ways. First, to regulate distributions of charged particles across various membranes such as when a plant's leaf curls.
Second, plants use electrical signals to relay long-distance messages from one part to another. This happens when an insect bits a leaf that may t refer to defensive responses in distant leaves. Both show how plants choose to interact with external stimuli.
Dr. Paco Calvo, co-author and the director of the Minimal Intelligence Lab says, "Only in the last decade when we have been associating animals with sentience, answering these questions takes time. If we separate our biases away, then we can move the field forward much fast[er]."
Critics however, argue that these responses are simply genetically embedded in plants that have been fine-tuned to appear as though there is intentional action.
Prof. Lincoln Taiz, a botanist from the University of California published a paper entitled "Plants Neither Possess nor Require Consciousness" that debunks the idea of plants having gestures of sentience and consciousness.
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