We are convinced that plants are cognitive and intelligent, so we use techniques and methods normally used to study cognitive animals.
“The main problem with plants is they move much more slowly than animals so we need to record plant movement for many days.
“We did an experiment with two climbing bean plants. If you put a single support between them, they compete for it.
“What is interesting is the behaviour of the loser: it immediately sensed the other plant had reached the pole and started to find an alternative. This was astonishing and it demonstrates the plants were aware of their physical environment and the behaviour of the other plant. In animals we call this consciousness.
“We don’t have a clear idea of how plants are able to sense the behaviour of other plants.
“Plants are much more sensitive than animals. Every root apex can detect 20 different physical and chemical parameters – light, gravity, magnetic field, pathogens and so on.
“Plants distribute all along the body the functions that in animals are concentrated in single organs. Whereas in animals almost the only cells producing electrical signals are in the brain, the plant is a kind of distributed brain in which almost every cell is able to produce them.
“Underestimating plants can be very dangerous, because our life depends on plants and our actions are destroying their environments.”