ArticleAnnals of botany2020
Plants are intelligent, here's how.
Article in Annals of botany, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed.
- G. T. Fechner (1848): Plants as sentient living beings.Plant signaling & behavior · 2026Article
- Learning in plants: A conceptual and experimental primer.Learning & behavior · 2026Article
- Plant Behaviour, Adaptive Plasticity and Evolution: Reassessing the Debate on Plant Intelligence.Biology · 2026Review
- Nonhuman Mobilities and Multispecies Border Regimes in (Post-)Colonial Southern Africa*.Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte · 2026Article
- Plant embodied intelligence: A paradigmatic perspective.iScience · 2026Review
- Review
- An Operational Framework for Affect-Adjacent Structure in Plant-Environment Interaction.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Mind Everywhere: A Framework for Conceptualizing Goal-Directedness in Biology and Other Domains-Part Two.Biological theory · 2026Article
- Illuminating consciousness.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Can Mimosa pudica Plants Enumerate Light Exposure Events?Cognitive science · 2025Article
- Gaining insights into epigenetic memories through artificial intelligence and omics science in plants.Journal of integrative plant biology · 2025Review
- Analysis of Electrome as a Tool for Plant Monitoring: Progress and Perspectives.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Plant "intelligence" and the misuse of historical sources as evidence.Protoplasma · 2025Review
- Don't jump the gun quite yet: aiming for the true target in plant neurobiology research.Protoplasma · 2025Article
- Plant intelligence dux: a comprehensive rebuttal of Kingsland and Taiz.Protoplasma · 2025Article
- Application of the theory of para-social relationships for the analysis of people's perceptions of indoor plants.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Vegetal memory through the lens of transcriptomic changes - recent progress and future practical prospects for exploiting plant transcriptional memory.Plant signaling & behavior · 2024Review
- Expression responses ofPlant signaling & behavior · 2024Article
- Extending cognition: a vegetal rejoinder to extensionless thought and to extended cognition.Plant signaling & behavior · 2024Article
- A system for the study of roots 3D kinematics in hydroponic culture: a study on the oscillatory features of root tip.Plant methods · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
hypothesesThe drive to survive is a biological universal. Intelligent behaviour is usually recognized when individual organisms including plants, in the face of fiercely competitive or adverse, real-world circumstances, change their behaviour to improve their probability of survival. SCOPE: This article explains the potential relationship of intelligence to adaptability and emphasizes the need to recognize individual variation in intelligence showing it to be goal directed and thus being purposeful. Intelligent behaviour in single cells and microbes is frequently reported. Individual variation might be underpinned by a novel learning mechanism, described here in detail. The requirements for real-world circumstances are outlined, and the relationship to organic selection is indicated together with niche construction as a good example of intentional behaviour that should improve survival. Adaptability is important in crop development but the term may be complex incorporating numerous behavioural traits some of which are indicated.
conclusionThere is real biological benefit to regarding plants as intelligent both from the fundamental issue of understanding plant life but also from providing a direction for fundamental future research and in crop breeding.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.