Cracking the code: a comparative approach to plant communication

Abstract

The linguistic behavior of humans is usually considered the point of reference for studying the origin and evolution of language. As commonly defined, language is a form of communication between human beings; many have argued that it is unique to humans as there is no apparent equivalent for it in non-human organisms. How language is used as a means of communication is examined in this essay from a biological perspective positing that it is effectively and meaningfully used by non-human organisms and, more specifically, by plants. We set out to draw parallels between some aspects characterizing human language and the chemical communication that occurs between plants. The essay examines the similarities in ways of communicating linked to three properties of language: its combinatorial structure, meaning-making activities and the existence of dialects. In accordance with the findings of researchers who have demonstrated that plants do indeed communicate with one another and with organisms in their environment, the essay concludes with the appeal for an interdisciplinary approach conceptualizing a broader ecological definition of language and a constructive dialogue between the biological sciences and the humanities.

How (not) to Talk to a Plant: An Application of Automata Theory to Plant Communication

“…Airborne VOCs are emitted by plants to attract pollinators (Slavković and Bendahmane 2023 ), to communicate danger and elicit defence (e.g., in tomato plants; Sugimoto et al 2014 ), or to attract predators against their attackers (e.g., maize seedlings attract wasps that parasitise the caterpillars that attack them). Bonato et al ( 2021 ) argues that terpenoids have a molecular structure with combinatorial features that can be interpreted as endowing them with syntactical and semantic properties. Although they do not explicitly present the linguistic features of terpenoids in detail, they seem to suggest that plant communication may have the same degree of complexity as animal communication: for example, it is sensitive to pragmatic, contextual, conditions and displays dialectic variants (like birdsongs).…”

“…Communication has been extensively studied in animals since Bradbury and Vehrencamp ( 1998 ) and Maynard-Smith and Harper ( 2003 ), and has also attracted the attention of many plant biologists (e.g., Gagliano 2012 ; Karban 2021 ) and linguists (Bonato et al 2021 ) as a proxy for identifying cognitive abilities in plants. As a field, plant communication encompasses at least two broad categories of phenomena.…”

Le piante: vita intelligente dei nostri paesaggi

“…Un recente lavoro di Bonato et al ( 2021) si è occupato di andare ad osservare con un'ottica comparativa alcune caratteristiche che rendono il linguaggio chimico dei VOCs simile per alcune caratteristiche al linguaggio umano, al fine di poter dimostrare che il termine linguaggio è fortemente appropriato anche per il mondo vegetale. Brevemente, è stato approfondito come il linguaggio chimico delle piante presenti una costruzione gerarchica da unità più semplici, le unità isopreniche, a unità più complesse, i terpeni; proprio come il linguaggio umano, dai morfemi alle parole alle frasi (Penuelas et al, 1995;Bonato et al, 2021). Ancora, è stato riconosciuto come questo linguaggio sia creativo, proprio come quello di alcuni animali, dalle api alle balene alle scimmie, all'uomo (Von Frisch, 1967;Seyfarth, Cheney, 2003;Salwiczek, Wickler, 2004).…”

“…In particolare, l'orchidea Dendrobium sinense (Broadmann et al, 2008) combina diverse molecole al fi- ne di mimare i feromoni emessi da alcune api, con lo scopo di attrarre delle vespe predatrici, che le servono ai fini dell'impollinazione. I feromoni sono segnali chimici tipicamente animali e il fatto che una pianta si sia evoluta per astrarre quelle molecole e ri-utilizzarle a proprio vantaggio non può che darci un esempio concreto di quanto siano organismi perfettamente connessi al proprio ambiente e ricchi di capacità che fino a pochi decenni fa non credevamo possibili (Bonato et al, 2021). Molte comunità di piante, ai fini paesaggistici ed estetici molto spesso sono composte da piante con fiore, le angiosperme.…”