Scientists: Plants have their own intelligence and the ability to “solve problems”!

A team of scientists has found that plants are not just living organisms, but they also possess a form of intelligence.

A new study shows that plants such as goldenrods are “smart enough” to detect other nearby plants without contacting them at all. They are also smart enough to adapt to threatening situations, such as being eaten by herbivores.

Many scientists define intelligence as the presence of a central nervous system, where electrical signals pass messages to other nerves to process information

Although plants do not have a brain like humans, they do have a vascular system, which is a network of cells that transport water, minerals, and nutrients to help them grow.

Now, scientists are calling for a redefinition of intelligence to include problem solving as a marker.

“There are more than 70 published definitions of intelligence and no agreement on what it is, even within a specific field,” said Andre Kessler, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University.

Previous studies have found that plants emit high-frequency distress sounds when they are exposed to environmental stressors, such as damage to their leaves and stems.

Scientists also suggested that plants might be able to count, make decisions, recognize their relatives, and even remember events.

The latest discovery came from studying goldenrods, flowers found across North America, Europe and Asia, where the team observed how they responded when eaten by beetles.

The plant secretes a chemical that tells the insect that the plant is damaged and is a poor source of food.

Scientists were then able to detect volatile organic compounds (VOC) by a nearby "golden rod" that produced the same defense mechanism to avoid being eaten.

“This fits our definition of intelligence,” Kessler explained. “Depending on the information it receives from the environment, the plant changes its standard behavior.”

The team conducted experiments in 2021 that showed that “golden rod” could also detect higher percentages of far-red light, or daylight, reflected from the leaves of nearby plants.

Far red light affects the growth of all plants.

When neighboring plants sense that a relative of the goldenrod is being eaten, they adapt by growing faster and releasing more defense chemicals.

When there are no nearby neighbors to warn them of a potential threat, plants do not engage in exponential growth, and the chemical response they send is different, according to scientists.

In addition, goldenrod detects chemicals released by the pest and uses them as signals of the threat that may attack.

Studies by other researchers have shown that each plant cell has broad-spectrum light perception and sensory molecules to detect very specific volatile compounds coming from neighboring plants.

Applying the concept of intelligence to plants could inspire new hypotheses about the mechanisms and functions of plant chemical communication, while also changing people's thinking about what intelligence really means, Kessler said.