Motor Intentions in Plants: A Kinematic Perspective with a Touch on Chemistry

In order to survive, all biological systems continuously retrieve information from their environment and use this information in order to effectively adapt to it (Kovac, 2007). The Darwinian wars will most likely favour those who can best mastery the environment. Nevertheless, if we are asked to name an intelligent organism, no one would mention a pea plant. Humans tend to assign intelligence to organisms that move. In fact, we are used to assigning intelligence to organisms that move about on their own (Castiello, 2023); in other words, we tend to assume that organisms that move in certain spatio-temporal conditions have intentions and thus possess some form of intelligence (Llinas, 2002). Advances in empirical research, have finally demonstrated not only how plants continuously monitor numerous parameters from the environment, but also how the sensory information obtained is integrated into adaptive responses and complex plant behaviour (Trewavas, 2003; Dicke et al., 2003; Bais et al., 2004; Braam, 2005; Baldwin et al., 2006; Brenner et al., 2006; Barlow, 2008; Baluška & Mancuso, 2009) and how these complex behaviours imply adaptive, flexible and goal-directed movements (Guerra et al., 2019, 2021, 2022; Ceccarini et al., 2020a,b). These considerations are at the core of the present thesis, which aims to systematize the intentionality underlying the motor processes observed. In particular, the focus of the present thesis is re-locating the cognitive characteristics and intentional actions of plants in their social framework, to claim that also plants are eusocial organisms.