Europe PMC · 2026-06-23
Researchers propose 'plant embodied intelligence' as a framework for understanding how plants solve problems, process information, and make decisions without a brain, using their distributed bodies and environment as the machinery of cognition.
The review defines plant embodied intelligence (PEI) as adaptive problem-solving that emerges from dynamic interactions between distributed plant structures and their environment, not from any central processing organ.
Four core research avenues are identified: adaptive morphogenesis and growth, distributed information processing and memory, ecological communication and swarm-like behavior, and decision-making under risk and competition.
A convergent methodology is proposed combining quantitative phenotyping, molecular systems biology, ecological modeling, and plant-inspired robotics to close critical gaps in the field.