Hormonal sentience, first described by
Robert A. Freitas Jr., describes the
information processing rate in
plants
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...
, which are mostly based on
hormone
A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are require ...
s instead of
neurons like in all major animals (except sponges). Plants can to some degree communicate with each other and there are even examples of one-way-communication with animals.
Acacia trees produce
tannin
Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.
The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'' ...
to defend themselves when they are grazed upon by animals. The airborne scent of the tannin is picked up by other acacia trees, which then start to produce tannin themselves as a protection from the nearby animals.
When attacked by
caterpillars, some plants can release chemical signals to attract
parasitic wasp
Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causi ...
s that attack the caterpillars.
[De Moraes, C. M.; Lewis, W. J.; Paré, P. W.; Alborn, H. T.; Tumlinson, J. H. (1998). "Herbivore-infested plants selectively attract parasitoids". Nature. 393 (6685): 570–573. doi:10.1038/31219.]
A similar phenomenon can be found not only between plants and animals, but also between fungi and animals. There exists some sort of communication between a fungus garden and workers of the leaf-cutting ant ''
Atta sexdens rubropilosa''. If the garden is fed with plants that are poisonous for the fungus, it signals this to the ants, which then will avoid fertilizing the fungus garden with any more of the poisonous plant.
The
Venus flytrap
The Venus flytrap (''Dionaea muscipula'') is a carnivorous plant native to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of the United States in North Carolina and South Carolina. It catches its prey—chiefly insects and arachnids—with a trapping ...
, during a 1- to 20-second sensitivity interval, counts two stimuli before snapping shut on its insect prey, a processing peak of 1 bit/s. Mass is 10–100 grams, so the flytrap's SQ is about +1. Plants generally take hours to respond to stimuli though, so vegetative SQs (Sentience Quotient) tend to cluster around -2.
See also
*
Biosemiotics
*
Phytosemiotics
Phytosemiotics is a branch of biosemiotics that studies the sign processes in plants, or more broadly, the vegetative semiosis. Vegetative semiosis is a type of sign processes that occurs at cellular and tissue level, including cellular recognition ...
*
Plant cognition
*
Plant perception (physiology)
Plant perception is the ability of plants to sense and respond to the environment by adjusting their morphology and physiology. Botanical research has revealed that plants are capable of reacting to a broad range of stimuli, including chemic ...
*
:Plant cognition
References
{{Reflist
External links
Xenopsychologyby
Robert A. Freitas Jr.
Botany