Individuality, self and sociality of vascular plants

Abstract

Vascular plants are integrated into coherent bodies via plant-specific synaptic adhesion domains, action potentials (APs) and other means of long-distance signalling running throughout the plant bodies. Plant-specific synapses and APs are proposed to allow plants to generate their self identities having unique ways of sensing and acting as agents with their own goals guiding their future activities. Plants move their organs with a purpose and with obvious awareness of their surroundings and require APs to perform and control these movements. Self-identities allow vascular plants to act as individuals enjoying sociality via their self/non-self-recognition and kin recognition. Flowering plants emerge as cognitive and intelligent organisms when the major strategy is to attract and control their animal pollinators as well as seed dispersers by providing them with food enriched with nutritive and manipulative/addictive compounds. Their goal in interactions with animals is manipulation for reproduction, dispersal and defence. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Basal cognition: multicellularity, neurons and the cognitive lens’.

Reframing cognition: getting down to biological basics

“…(Image: Hannah Laeverenz Schlogelhofer and Kirsty Wan, EvoMotion Lab, Living Systems Institute, Exeter, UK.) ( f ) Tendrils of the plant Cayratia japonica have been found to display self-recognition [50]. (Image: KENPEI, own photo.…”

Uncovering cognitive similarities and differences, conservation and innovation

“…That plants exhibit a broad range of features that fit the cognitive toolkit has been argued for quite some time and is now increasingly accepted, a change in which František Baluška and Stefano Mancuso [33] played a prominent role [34][35][36]. Here they discuss the ways in which plants can act as individuals by the use of synaptic-like adhesion domains, as well as action potentials and other forms of long-distance signalling.…”

Root Tragedy of the Commons: What is it and Where Might it Occur?

“…Owing to their mesh divider experimental setup, it is difficult to accept the conclusion of the latter study. As soybean plants were not found to respond to the presence of a neighbor in terms of root proliferation, we can conclude that mechanisms such as root communication through root exudates (Baluška & Mancuso, 2021;, or self/non-self root discrimination by sensing chemical or electrical signals (Sharifi & Ryu, 2021) is not functioning. Such notion indicates that soybean plants may not be able to engage efficiently in cooperative behaviors.…”