The brain which is an organ in most animals does the thinking for the animals. It helps them flee or hunt, always think of the well being of the species and at the same time it's main purpose is to replicate/reproduce the species with a better product in the next generation. Besides these it does millions of other jobs for us. By brain I am not referring to the organ brain but what the brain does.
(The brain is just the hardware but all the decisions are software based, to read more about the software capabilities or the difference between the two click here)
So do plants have a similar decision making system even though not as centralized as the animal brain?
The question is
Do they know that there are other animals out there?
Do they want to interact with the other animals?
Do they want to take the help of the animals to reproduce?
Do they know about the tastes of the animals?
Do they know that the animals have eyes to see and a sense of smell?
Do they know how the animals with brains eat and digest their food?
To be more specific, do they know what kind of acids we have in our digestive system?
If the answer to all these questions is going to be yes, then I would say yes the plants have a brain too.
If we look at the way the plants bear fruits and flowers and how their reproduction is dependent on it, that will give us a good glimpse of the way the plants seduce the animals to carry their offspring (seed). Let's look at the apple tree as an example.
When the apple tree is ready to reproduce it takes the seed and plants the seed right into an apple. When the seed is not fully ready at that point the apple is green and does not taste sweet, it would be too sour and most of the animals cannot deal with sour and keep away from the apple. Once the seed is ready the apple tree would want an animal to eat the apple so it's seed is transported to a different area through the animal feces. To make that a success the tree takes the following action.
Makes the apple sweet, juicy and nutritional so the animals have a need for it and get attracted to it.
Changes the color of the apple to a bright red to make it stand out among the leaves and visible so the animals can spot it more easily.
Starts dropping the apples to the ground so many animals that cannot reach the apple can eat it directly from the ground.
Wraps the seed in a hard enough shell to withstand the acids in the stomach of the animal eating it, so it can come out unharmed with the fecal matter.
The other thing to be noted is that the tree wants the seed transported as it does not want another tree growing right near it because that would mean sharing of resources like water and sun light, and that's why to survive it has to plan all of the above.
So now you decide if all of the planning and the manipulating is done by the tree to grow and survive or is it just a coincidence.
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