Nature & Environment

Plants are very good at making decisions

By T.K. Randall
July 4, 2016

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) They might not be capable of self-awareness or complex logical thought processes, but when it comes to making decisions plants are surprisingly good at making the right choice.

In a recent study, researchers grew a number of pea plants and split their roots between two pots.

While both pots contained the same amount of nutrients on average, the levels in one of the pots was kept constant while the other varied over time. After a certain amount of time had passed the team then switched things up by keeping the nutrient levels equal in both pots.Their findings indicated that the plants would lay their roots in the less predictable pot when the nutrient levels were low but would pick the more consistent pot when the levels were high.

This behavior is similar to the way a game show contestant might choose to gamble a low prize for the chance to win a higher prize because they wouldn't really have much to lose.

The plants actually seemed to know when to take a chance and when to play it safe.


Source: Gizmodo

Tags: Plants, Psychology