About this app

The plant kingdom is the most forgotten kingdom than any other kingdom on the earth. Although plants can respire, grow, develop and called as living organisms, usually they will not be considered so. The moment when someone asks about the largest living organism on the earth, common answer will be either Blue Whale or Elephant. The moment when someone asks about the organisms with the longest life, common answer will be Tortoise. Are not these best examples of the negligence of plant kingdom? Sequoiadendron giganteum is a tree which can grow to a height of 311ft, making blue whale (90ft) comparatively a dwarf organism. Why forget giant Peepal tree and Banyan trees? Similarly, Pinus longaeva located in White Mountains of California can live for at least 4000 years. These species are not considered or go unmentioned just because they are plants and not animals.
When it comes to the question of intelligence, the scenario is the same. Definitions of intelligence do not even consider plants. Generally intelligence can be defined as “One’s capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving”. With respect to animals, definition considered is “Adaptively variable behavior within the lifetime of the individual”- Stenhouse.
Attempt to elucidate plant intelligence was first done by Charles Darwin as early as during the 1880s only in his book “Power of Movement in Plants”. He says that “It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle thus endowed, and having the power of directing the movements of the adjoining parts, acts like the brain of one of the lower animals”. He tried to argue that plant root tip acts as the brain units of the plants deciding various movements. This was the definition made two centuries ago and unfortunately, still we are unable to understand plants or their intelligence.
There can be several examples mentioned about the movement or so-called intelligent behavior in the plants:
• Herbivory plant closing its leaf immediately after the contact of insect.
• Orientation and reorientation of plant shoot for better utilisation of sunlight.
• Flowering behavior itself (Yes, they do move and behave differently at different conditions!)
• Darlingtonia californica also called as cobra lily does nothing to eat the insects. It just has created a cell with very thin walls which make insects fly towards that fake door instead of real door lying beneath their foot. Insect dies to due starvation and plant digests it.
• Dancing plant (Desmodium gyrans) responds to the sounds but made only by instruments.
• Plants use pollinators like insects, animals, mammals just like human beings use animals for their own work. All these make it inevitable to coin the term “Plant Intelligence”.
This app explores these individual aspects of plant intelligence.
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New features

First release

App Permissions

Allows applications to open network sockets.