Plants Behave?

Not very far from the island of Papua New Guinea, lay the Solomon Islands- known for their rich and enigmatic history. The tribals of this island don't believe in chopping down the trees. Instead, they encircle the tree for a certain period, typically a month, and indulge in cursing the tree- letting go of their negativity. It is believed that the tree senses the negativity, and eventually withers and dies. Although this is a fascinating notion, it is, unfortunately, a myth. Nevertheless, it sets the tone for the next part of this article.

Plants do feel. They don't have specialized neurons like us vertebrates, but plants do have electric signals continuously moving throughout their bodies. The famous touch-me-not plant (Mimosa pudica) is a classic example- the reflex seismonastic movements are generated as a result of eons of defense and anti-transpiration adaptations. Now this was a long-term adaptation and had little to do with memory. An experiment by Monica Gagliano, an Evolutionary biologist, revealed that after being dropped repeatedly, a plant developed a routine of reopening its leaves faster every time. Despite being dropped under similar conditions several times, the plant got used to it eventually and sort of developed a “routine”.

In the 1970s, it was believed that plants could sense music and were affected by the overall tone of the music being played- Classical music was preferred over rock and roll as Cleve Baxter, a CIA lie-detecting expert claimed since he could "communicate" with plants "telepathically". Cleve Baxter's ideology faced tons of backlash and his ideas were labeled "pseudoscience". While scientists believe that certain sound frequencies and wavelengths can aid in plant growth, plants preferring certain genres over others was a little too far-fetched. Charles Darwin was the harbinger of plant neurobiology. In his book, "The Power of Movement of Plants" which he co-authored with his son, he drew an analogy between the plant roots and the brain of some lower animals. This idea has an on-and-off relationship with the scientists.

J.C. Bose played a crucial role in revolutionizing the field of plant neurobiology. Despite being a physicist by profession, he skillfully utilized his expertise in physics to gain insights into how plants remember, think, feel, and react. He also invented a device called the Crescograph, which was capable of measuring the growth and movement of plants as minute as 1/100th of an inch. He conducted several trials while switching between different environmental factors like sunlight, temperature, electrical source, etc. These altercations provided insights into how plants respond to stimuli. Based on these extensive observations, Bose proposed the concept of the 'vegetable nervous system' which was supposedly analogous to the animal nervous system but predominantly metaphorical. Skepticism followed. To this day, contemporary scientists refuse to accept the bioelectric and electrophysiological theories proposed by Bose.

Modern-day scientists who worship Bose for his research strive to make him and his work proud every day. Some experiments, the popular ones, deal with plant intuition. Thanks to time-lapse photography, we can now observe plant routines. Climbers tend to exhibit a 360-degree rotatory motion to assess their surroundings, searching for a substrate to grab onto. Now this might seem like a simple procedure. But under similar scenarios, if two different plants compete for the same substrate where one of them succeeds before the other, the losing plant somehow senses this and refuses to latch onto the same substrate to avoid competition. In another experiment, plant memory was put to the test. This experiment was inspired by Pavlov's research on conditioning. A dog salivates at the ringing of a bell that has been paired with food. The dog expects his food to arrive after the ringing of the bell, hence the salivation. In the case of a plant, it is exposed to sunlight and strong winds simultaneously. Plants naturally grow towards the direction of sunlight. On subjecting the same plant to only strong winds, the plant grows towards the strong winds hoping for a bright and photosynthetic future. The plant registers or associates sunlight with strong winds and hence grows towards the unbeloved wind.

Plants are living beings, but we don't usually think of them that way. They can observe and react to their surroundings, but we're not sure if they experience emotions like we do. Maybe we don't understand them well enough! One thing we do know is that plants are aware of themselves and their environment, which is something we humans could learn from.?