Scientific research into plant cognition dates back to Charles Darwin, who would draw parallels between plant roots and the brain. Ever since, studious circles around the world have taken a leaf out of his book, from the controversial publishing of Secret Life of Plants in the 1970s, which goes as far as saying plants can read human minds, to Daniel Chamowitz’s 2013 book What a Plant Knows, which explores how plants’ acute senses teach them about the world.
Although no plant has a central nervous system, some researchers are exploring the field of neurobiology in botany. The International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV) in Florence, Italy argues that having a brain should not be a prerequisite for intelligence. “We firmly think that all the behaviors observed in plants, which look very much like learning, memory, decision-making, and intelligence observed in animals, deserve to be called by those same terms,”
What is consciousness? It is awareness of self, others and our surroundings. What is sentience? It is the ability to perceive, experience and feel things.
The concept of sentience is a key part of animal rights. This is because it is necessary for animals to be sentient in order to experience pain and distress and the reason why reasonable people oppose animal cruelty. It is also part of the concept of the sanctity of life.
Scientific research shows that plants possess these same attributes. Plants are conscious, sentient beings.
In 1973, The Secret Life of Plants, by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird documented experiments that showed plant sentience. The book gave many examples of plant responses to human care, their ability to communicate, their reactions to music, their lie-detection abilities and their ability to recognize and to predict. It was a best seller. However, despite quoting from a range of research, it was met with skepticism by many scientists and academics.
Since then, thousands of published studies present a body of evidence that plants are conscious, sentient beings.
But, all of this doesn’t compare with the Dodder plant. Dodder not only uses taste, smell, movement and touch to manipulate other plants, but is, also, able to hijack all of their genes. The remarkable Dodder plant might be the most intelligent plant.