Plants Could Be Far More Intelligent Than We Think

Plants have also been found to be able to use at least one other means of communication with other plants and that is by chemical secretion and can warn other plants of danger this way. We know some of them can follow the sun to gather its light more efficiently and can adapt themselves at times to changes in their environment. Because of this many different plant experiments have taken place. One experiment I  read about seemed to indicate a plant could not only hear, but understand. A researcher had made a recording of a caterpillar chewing on the same type of plant. He played the recording next to the plant and the result was the plant produced chemicals to protect itself. How did the plant understand the sound and even associate it with danger? Have we been misjudging plants, are they smarter than we think?

Not only do plants not even have a central nervous system, no brain and don’t seem to do much outside of growing, but we could be wrong about them and it seems there is a lot more going on than we suspected. There are scientists who have been conducting plant experiments who are convinced plants can learn. One scientists says she proved it. She took a fan and aimed it at a plant and then shown a light on to it. She did this for quite a long time, then one day she turned on the fan without the light and the plant turned toward the fan. No one can understand why, or how a plant could learn. For one thing where are its memories kept? This incredible experiment should make all of us think differently of plants. Hey, when we cut our lawns, do the blades of grass get hurt and are they crying out, but we just can’t hear them?

This reminds me of something I mentioned before. It was a television episode I saw many, many years ago where a scientist was doing experiments on rocks and somehow found out they could feel pain. I am only telling you about this to illustrate we could be wrong about things. The story about the rocks was science fiction, but the work with the plants is not.

Plants have a way of discerning danger. When a caterpillar chews on the leaves of a tobacco plant, the plant doesn’t just sit there and ignore the fact it is in danger. When a human gets into a dangerous situation, he or she calls for help, but so does a plant. The tobacco plant sends out a chemical signal calling for predators that eat caterpillars. How in the world is the tobacco plant equipped to do this, how does it know it is in danger and even more incredible, how does the chemicals attract those predators that eat caterpillars? This action seems very well thought out, doesn’t it?

Some trees are equipped to protect themselves. The leaves of a Holly tree are equipped with sharp edges. This is to protect the tree from animals who might want to eat the leaves. We have all heard about those terrible fires in the forests of this country, but did you know some trees have developed a way to protect themselves in a fire? They have developed a very thick bark which is hard to ignite.

It has been found plants sometimes monitor the activities of other plants nearby. When another plant sends out a signal of an insect attack for example, the receiving plant gets its defenses ready. It seems plants may be looking out  for one another. This is most curious and even has to be considered incredible. Plants seem to be in competition at times with other plants for the best spot and can push other plants out of the way. Sometimes a plant will be able to kill off its competition with chemicals. I am talking about plants such as the knapweed plant which gets into the grasslands and kills off the native grasses. I guess you could consider this a war among plants, except it isn’t much of a war since the invader has weapons many times and the invaded is not able to defend itself.

An experiment was conducted to see how plants react to other plants that came from them. These plants were considered siblings for the sake of the experiment. When plants jostled for position, they were much kinder to their siblings. How did they know they came from them? What is the mechanism which allowed them to identify this fact and what would be different from their offspring from other plants of the same kind?

It is known plants can go out of their way to attract insects, but did you know they can also attract mammals. There is a plant, known as the pitcher plant located in Borneo which can intercept bat communications and fool the bat’s echolocation system. This steers the bat to the plant which in enters and deposits its guano which then fertilizes the ground giving nutrients to the plant. One has to wonder how the plant developed this ability.

All this plant communication makes me ask the question, have we underrated the intelligence of plants and do they know even more about what is happening around them? Will future humans be able to communicate with plants in some way and will they be able to translate their thoughts or whatever substitutes for them to us? Most of us have heard about talking or singing to plants making them healthier. Do plants need companionship and when we put a single plant in a pot in the house, does it get lonely? It is starting to look like this might be the case. I know if I decide to get a houseplant, I will get more than one after reading about all this research.