It seems there is better way than peeling petals to make decisions. A new study suggests plants are endowed with decision-making capabilities despite not having complex nervous systems of animals.
Published in Current Biology, the research by Oxford University showed that pea plants tend to take risks in nutrient scarce situations for survival but can also play safe in less risky environments. To arrive at their findings, researchers grew plants with roots split between two pots, with one offering a constant supply of nutrients and the second with fluctuating supply. The average amount of nutrients in both pots remained the same during the course of experiment.
Researchers observed the pea plants grew more roots into the pot with constant supply when it offered adequate supply. However, when the constant supply provided inadequate, the plants took a gamble and grew more roots into the pot with varying nutrient supply, reports The Christian Science Monitor.
"To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an adaptive response to risk in an organism without a nervous system," said study author Professor Alex Kacelnik. "We do not conclude that plants are intelligent in the sense used for humans or other animals, but rather that complex and interesting behaviors can theoretically be predicted as biological adaptations - and executed by organisms - on the basis of processes evolved to exploit natural opportunities efficiently."
Plants lack a nervous network and brain unlike animals but are known to respond to their surroundings. The pea plant experiment has revealed that plants, like humans, take risks when playing it safe does not work. That plants are passive entities, no longer holds true if the findings of the research are considered.
