Are Plants Really Intelligent?
The tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima), a North American species of goldenrod in the family Asteraceae, can perceive other plants nearby without ever touching them, by sensing far-red light ratios reflected off leaves. When goldenrod is eaten by herbivores, it adapts its response based on whether or not another plant is nearby. Is this kind of flexible, real-time, adaptive response a sign of intelligence in plants?
Plant induced responses to environmental stressors are increasingly studied in a behavioral ecology context. This is particularly true for plant induced responses to herbivory that mediate direct and indirect defenses, and tolerance. These seemingly adaptive alterations of plant defense phenotypes in the context of other environmental conditions have led to the discussion of such responses as intelligent behavior. In their paper, Kessler & Mueller consider the concept of plant intelligence and some of its predictions for chemical information transfer in plant interaction with other organisms. Image credit: Becky.
“There are more than 70 definitions that are published for intelligence and there is no agreement on what it is, even within a given field,” said Professor André Kessler, a chemical ecologist at Cornell University.
“Many people believe that intelligence requires a central nervous system, with electrical signals acting as the medium for processing information.”
“Some plant biologists equate plant vascular systems with central nervous systems, a
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