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Cognition in Plants

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Plant-Environment Interactions

Part of the book series: Signaling and Communication in Plants ((SIGCOMM))

Abstract

We discuss the possibility and the meaning of the claim that plants are cognitive from the perspective of embodied cognition. In embodied cognition, the notion of cognition can be interpreted in a very broad way and applied to many free-moving creatures. In this chapter, we discuss whether and (if so) how this approach applies to intelligence in plants. Building on work from “plant neurobiology,” we discuss the differences in speed between plants and animals, similarities between sensory-driven plant growth and animal memory, and the presence of offline behavior in plants. In our view, these examples show that under a wide, embodied interpretation of cognition, plants may well qualify as being cognitive.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is thus important to differentiate here between this wide interpretation of cognition, which may apply in a meaningful way far beyond the human case, and the notion of mind, which may well remain highly restrictive and possibly limited to human beings.

  2. 2.

    This story is actually a mere anecdote, and not systematically corroborated by evidence (Keijzer 2001).

  3. 3.

    For introductions and overviews of embodied cognition, see, e.g., Calvo and Gomila (2008), Clark (1997), Pfeifer and Scheier (19991991), or Varela et al. ().

  4. 4.

    For Jonas (1966), motility and perception are also intrinsically linked to emotion and the presence of an inner, phenomenal dimension. We will not discuss these further complexities here.

  5. 5.

    For more sophisticated plant competencies, see Trewavas (2005).

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Acknowledgments

Fred Keijzer wants to thank Pamela Lyon, Marc van Duijn and Daan Franken for their helpful comments and discussion. The preparation of this chapter was supported in part by DGICYT Project HUM2006-11603-C02-01 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Education and Feder Funds) to Paco Calvo Garzón.

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  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Murcia, Spain

    Paco Calvo Garzón

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  1. Paco Calvo Garzón
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Correspondence to Paco Calvo Garzón .

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    Garzón, P., Keijzer, F. (2009). Cognition in Plants. In: Balu¿ka, F. (eds) Plant-Environment Interactions. Signaling and Communication in Plants. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89230-4_13

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