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Clara Polonia

Professor Lindsay Knapp

FYW 102 Academic Writing

30 September 2021

Facts About Plants

Plants are the largest living forms that exist on earth, their life span is longer than the rest

of the inhabitants of the planet, they have many characteristics that make them interesting and

unique, we can find them in almost all areas of the planet, both on land and in water. There are

many things to learn about plants, as Daniel Chamovitz mentioned on his book called, “What A

Plant Knows”, the unknown information about plants is wide, and it has various perspectives. He

said, “Plants see you. Plants know if you are near them, or even if you are standing over them”,

but this does not refer to how we (humans) can see, but rather to a deeper explanation of how

sensitive and intelligent plants can be. Plants are more complex living beings than our eyes can

observe, and our brains understand. If we stopped to analyze the plants for a moment, we would

be amazed with their abilities, and at the same time, we would notice that from a certain

perspective we are not so different from them.

Plants have a very interesting behavior, one of these would be their ability to “observe”

and react to lights. Unlike us, plants can sense light in many ways. They can perceive ultraviolet

and infrared light, as well as the light that takes on many different colors, and even its intensity.

Perceiving light is a long and complex process for humans. The retina (a layer behind our eye

that senses light and sends images to our brain) has two types of cells that detect and respond to

light - rods, and cones. These light-sensitive cells are known as photoreceptors. The rods are
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activated in low light. The cones are stimulated in higher lighting environments. In his landmark

book "The Origin of Species" (1859), Charles Darwin conducted several experiments that

continue to be influential to this day. He concluded that light is the primary factor that affects

plant growth, and he established that plants tend to bend toward the light.

All these claims on Darwin's part were confirmed by a series of experiments in which he

and his son (Francis) worked for a long time. During Darwin's experiments, he discovered

"tropism", the movements plants make if they are stimulated by lighting. He started by planting

seeds in a dark room that was only lit by a single lamp twelve feet away. To find out through

which "eyes" they received the light, he covered and uncovered the tips of the stems.

Moreover, by moving from the apex to the base, he found that "some substance" moved from the

apex to the base, enabling the apex to bend toward the light, Darwin and his son also found that

plants that were covered with glass would still bend towards the light.

Plants can adapt to multiple situations and not only depend on light for their growth, but

plants can also adjust their behavior based on changing conditions using sophisticated sensing

devices, like our own human senses. These plants are moving with purpose, which means they

must be aware of what is going on around them. "To respond correctly, plants also need

sophisticated sensing devices tuned to varying conditions”, as Schultz Jack mentioned.

Plant perception has been studied in recent years for reasons other than demonstrating

that plants have feelings, they may not have eyes, ears, or a tongue like us, but their skin can

perform many of the same functions. Plants can sense their surroundings, and they can respond

accordingly just like humans.

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Several scientists have done a wide variety of studies and experiments with plants around

the world over the years to see how plants react to their environment and how they adapt to it at

the same time. Plants can detect sounds too. Researchers at the Institute of Botanical Sciences in

Bern, Switzerland, recorded ultrasonic vibrations emanating from pines and oaks during a

drought, perhaps alerting other trees to prepare for water-scarce conditions, Chamovitz noted,

"Their preliminary results indicate that corn roots grow in the direction of specific frequency

vibrations. Even more surprising is their finding that the roots themselves could also be emitting

sound waves."

The scientist also points out that, just as our languages contain receptors for different

molecules in food, plants have receptors for soluble molecules. And he cites the case of a

parasitic plant, the dodder, which contains almost no chlorophyll and smells like its potential

victims.

Another example that we can use to explain our resemblance to plants would be, how

even without eyes, plants such as Arabidopsis possess as many as 11 types of photoreceptors,

compared to our measly four. This suggests that their vision is more complex than ours. Plants

have different priorities, and their sensory systems reflect this. On the other hand, it is also worth

noting the similarities between plants and animals, since they have many similar traits and

characteristics. Plants and animals have differences in physical appearance, but both belong to

the same domain, the eukaryotic, they have the same type of cell. Also, within plants and

animals, there are organisms that have a higher body organization than the rest, they are higher

organisms.
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All these characteristics make plants resemble us and animals alike since we share many

of our biological functions, from being all living beings to the system of adaptation and reaction

to our environment. However, two main characteristics differentiate us humans and animals from

plants, and it is the fact that we can move/displace, and plants cannot. Additionally, the other one

is that plants have completely different ways of acquiring food and nourishing themselves.

Animals can feed from various sources being carnivores (of other animals) or herbivores

(feeding on plants) and humans depend on both plants and animals to eat. While plants are

capable of producing their own food through a process known as "photosynthesis", where they

convert sunlight into food.

Comprehend the sensory world of plants in greater depth is also vital for our own future,

according to Chamovitz. “Let's think that plants are seeing light, smelling aromas, distinguishing

up and down and integrating all this information without having a brain. How do they do it? This

is one of the incredible questions that we must understand."

Understanding this is essential, according to the scientist, since "our whole life depends

on plants": we breathe the oxygen released by plants, we eat them, we dress with products

obtained from them, we travel in vehicles that run on fuels of fossil plants and we cure ourselves

with medicines derived from plants.

To sum everything up, all living beings are different and possess their own composition.

The sensory requirements of plants are equal as important as the sensory requirements of animals

and humans, plants are essential for a healthy stability of our environment. Many people look at

plants as something that is worthless and they do not understand the importance that they have,

or how just like us humans, they can sense and feel.

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Work cited

Chamovitz, Daniel. What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses of Your Garden - and

beyond. Richmond: Oneworld, 2013.

Gabbatiss, Josh. "BBC Earth | Home." BBC News. BBC, 10 Jan. 2017. Web. 24 Sept. 2021.