sentience of plants

While studying phytochrome, one of those plant visual pigments, in grad school in the early 80s I took a med biochem class that studied human neurochemistry. I was struck by the similarities structurally between plant growth regulators and animal neurotransmitters. I came to the conclusion that plants did indeed have neurotransmission mechanisms; however, they did not evolve under the pressure of time response that animals did. Plants lack mobility for the most part, so they can react slowly.

Another interesting divergence is the size of most plant genomes. They tend to be much larger than animal genomes; they often have much more DNA and much more duplication. Under threat, they have mechanisms to induce higher rates of variance.

Taken together these define beings that have slower responses to their environment, but that nonetheless react and adapt, and they store more of this ability in their genomes: more ‘intelligent DNA’ in the sense that adaptation represents intelligence.

Thanks for a very interesting piece, Candy! And I appreciate the references to other work!! I’ll check some of it out…