Plants Communication and Cognition
The concept that plants have language, feelings, and cognition is a fascinating topic that bridges the gap between science, philosophy, and spirituality. While plants do not have brains or nervous systems like animals, recent research suggests they possess complex mechanisms for communication, perception, and interaction with their environment. These challenges traditional views of plant life and opens up intriguing possibilities about the nature of intelligence and consciousness.
Plants communicate through a variety of means. Chemical signaling is one of the most well-documented forms of plant communication. When under attack by pests, many plants release volatile organic compounds into the air. These compounds serve as distress signals that can be detected by neighboring plants, which then preemptively bolster their own defenses. This form of communication is not just limited to intra-species interactions; plants can also influence the behavior of animals, including humans, through the release of these compounds, affecting pollination, seed dispersal, and even deterring herbivores.
Regarding feelings and cognition, the concept is more metaphorical, as plants do not have feelings in the human sense. However, they do exhibit behaviors that suggest a form of awareness and adaptability. For example, plants can sense and respond to light, gravity, water, touch, and various chemical cues in their environment. Some studies have shown that plants can learn from experience and adjust their behaviors accordingly, a trait that hints at a form of memory or cognition. The Venus flytrap, for instance, can count the number of times an insect touches its sensors before closing its trap, ensuring it does not waste energy on false alarms. This ability to process information and respond in a manner that maximizes survival and reproductive success might not equate to human-like cognition but suggests a level of complexity in plant life that warrants deeper exploration and respect. In this chapter we will discuss that interesting issue between the Holy Quran and science.
Allah in the Holy Quran said: Do you not see that to Allāh prostrates whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth and the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the moving creatures and many of the people? But upon many the punishment has been justified. And he whom Allāh humiliates - for him there is no bestower of honor. Indeed, Allāh does what He wills (Al-Haj 18)
And the stars and trees prostrate, )6 Al-Rahman- Holy Quran)
Living things include all plants, as plants are living creatures that feed, live, breathe, feel, communicate with each other, and may establish a relationship between them and their owners, and all of this, of course, has its own philosophies specific to the plant and its type, and this is what we will address in this article.
Plants are living beings with a soul, but not like the soul of humans and animals. They get sick, live and die, have special genes and are part of the mutual exchange of life between humans and non-humans, but their feelings are limited, as they do not regret because they are more harnessed.
They are an integral part of nature and its balances. Trees are growing plants that have parts that include trunk, branches, leaves, roots, and, like humans, need water and other basic needs.
Trees take in water, sunlight and carbon dioxide through a process known as photosynthesis. This process produces glucose, or sugar, which the tree uses for energy, and oxygen as a byproduct (humans then inhale the oxygen and exhale the carbon dioxide for the tree to use, continuing the cycle) They and humans are two elements in one cycle.
The lifespan of trees ranges from short-lived trees to trees that live thousands of years.
Trees lack a well-developed nervous system like ours, but they emit electrical signals from within, suggesting that they have some sort of nervous system and cognition. Some contemporary botanists explain that they have discovered the presence of neurotransmitters in trees such as Serotonin, Dopamine and Glutamate, which are the same as those found in humans to transmit nerve signals in the human brain. It has been proven that trees feel certain emotions, such as the crying of some trees when they are cut down, and they scream with a sound with vibrations that the human ear does not hear. Sometimes when they are cut down, we hear them humming and crying before they fall to the ground.
A tree's emotional range is somewhat limited, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. For example, trees can sense and react to cold, heat, dryness, touch, and external issues.
When a plant senses that it's too cold, it initiates responses that can help protect it from harm, such as trees using their bark to reflect light and dissipate heat. To protect themselves from heat, trees use their leaves to shade themselves, and they also use conductive cooling and insulation.
Trees feel dehydrated when they don't have enough water to meet their needs, which is equivalent to us feeling thirsty. When they feel thirsty, they take measures to conserve water and ration its use by physiologically reducing the amount of evaporation. In general, plants can sense touch, but there is debate as to whether touching them is beneficial or harmful to them, with some studies showing that touch stunts plant growth.
Trees can also sense insects and mix chemicals internally to form compounds that act as repellents or attractants depending on the type of insect, if it is harmful to the tree, it secretes repellents, and if it is beneficial or an insect-eating plant, it secretes attractants, such as attracting bees that are useful in pollination.
Some plants feed on certain insects that they recognize when they land on them, so they close around them like a mouth and absorb and digest them, so they feel hungry as we feel and digest as well.
Some of them eat some rodents, large animals, trees and plants cry when they are thirsty using high-pitched ultrasonic waves between 20 to 100 kilohertz that the human ear cannot pick up, and when they feel pain or when they are afraid, as when they are cut.
Trees have a vast arsenal of ways to communicate with each other, including sending electrochemical, hormonal and slow-pulsed electrical signals and communicating through the air using volatile organic elements. Trees even have senses we lack, such as the ability to sense changes in gravity, the presence of water or even the presence of mass in their roots.
In the first decade of the 21st century, ecologists began talking about “mother trees”. It was found that these older trees send nutrients, carbon, water and alarm signals to younger trees of the same species to help them grow and protect them, similar to the parental relationship between humans and animals. It was found that these trees communicate with each other through a type of root fungus, Mycorrhiza, which exists in networks underground and in the roots of the trees.
It was also found in an experiment in which plants were placed in different and distant pots and then one of them was infected with a fungal disease and after a period of days, it was found that the neighboring plants that are far from the infected plants began to produce antibodies against the fungal disease that infected their neighbor and concluded from this that the infected plants sent through the air through volatile organic matter that acts as information signals warnings about this disease, which prompted them to produce antibodies against it and on the same basis found the same behavior taken by plants to protect themselves from other thorns or even herbivores and predators that transmit diseases, praise be to God the Creator.
In other experiments, plants were planted under identical conditions and were divided into two groups, one was left alone and the second was exposed to prayer or prayer by people, and it was observed that the growth and nature of the plants that were exposed to prayer was much higher than the first, then the same experiment was repeated, but this time the people who prayed and prayed were very far from the plants, and the same result was observed. This shows that plants have feelings, respond and have a language to communicate with each other and respond to the prayers of their owners. In 2006, a group of ecologists coined a new phrase called Plant Neurobiology as a field
The paper argued that the plants were not responding directly to the stimulus because the reeds were too far away. Therefore, the plant must have perceived the reed in some way that is not exactly known but is similar to neural sensations. There is a growing body of research on plant cognition. Researchers have observed that there is communication between plants and animals such as insects and bees that feed on the nectar of flowers through vibrational sound vibrations, leading to a reciprocal relationship to produce good quality honey and at the same time obtain good pollination with the ability of plants to control the behavior of their insect partners through chemical organic compounds.
Evidence that plants can recognize same-species relatives, distinguish relatives from non-relatives, and distinguish between different classes of relatives, which play an essential role in animal social cognition, has been found in plants. For example, studies focusing on root allocation and interaction show that Impatiens pallida specimens fight for resources more aggressively if they compete with members of different species. Similarly, root allocation in Cakile edentula increases when a group of strangers share a pot, but not when groups of related individuals do so. These results suggest that root interaction and root-derived chemical secretions play a critical role as cues for kin recognition and competitive discrimination between relatives, leading to adaptive behavioral changes. Subsequent studies indicate the importance of photoreceptors in kin recognition. For example, the Arabidopsis plant Arabidopsis recognizes kin neighbors by detecting far-red/red light and blue light profiles. Furthermore, Arabidopsis models that interact with members of their relatives produce more seeds than plants that interact with unrelated members. This is evidence of cooperative behavior in plants.
Recent research has found that plants and trees have the ability to make decisions in accordance with their needs, such as the amount of light, the quality of nutrients and soil salinity. For example, some plants have been found to sense the salinity of the soil before the root reaches it, so if it is highly saline, they reverse their roots upward and in the opposite direction even before they reach the high-salinity ground.
This research suggests that plants, like other organisms, can engage in complex decision-making, integrating and weighting information from different factors, and prioritizing responses to optimize the chance of survival.
Some plants know from nightfall which way the sun is rising and move their leaves and flowers to face the sun, while others are able to produce other roots suitable for the soil in order to survive. Plants have proactive behavioral engines that, through their communication with the world around them, can make important decisions in the face of environmental changes.
Plants have a long-term memory of their surroundings, which requires adaptation. They learn from experiences and remember them to have a healthy structure. For example, if less nutrients are given to the same type of plant under the same conditions, it is found that those with less nutrients develop more roots than those that are fed more.
The needs of trees are similar to those of humans: they need water, food and air. Unlike humans who need water to use their bodies and excrete waste, trees need water to make their food. Trees drink water through a natural straw known as xylem, which delivers water to the ends of their branches.
Trees have sap that moves nutrients and water through the tree, just like the way transports nutrients and water through the tree, just like the way blood transports nutrients and water to the entire body. The bronchi in our lungs are also similar to tree roots.
In summary, trees don't have all the qualities of humans, but they do feel, thirst, hunger, communicate, and are influenced by their God-given life. In fact, a tree's emotional range is limited. It may feel pain, but it doesn't feel regret or happiness or anything like that. However, trees do cry, scream, and perceive despite seemingly lacking the ability to see, hear, feel, and communicate as humans do. The elements that the plant takes from the soil are the same elements that go into the structure of the human being:
And Allah gave you a plant from the earth (Noah 17 Holy Quran).
