Can plants actually learn, remember, and make decisions?

The answer

Research into plant intelligence has revealed startling capabilities. In 2016, Monica Gagliano at the University of Western Australia demonstrated that Mimosa pudica plants stopped folding their leaves after repeated harmless drops, retaining this 'learned' response for 28 days - longer than many insect memories. Venus flytraps count electrical action potentials: two touches within 20 seconds trigger closure, five trigger digestive enzyme production. Pea plants in a 2016 study 'gambled,' preferring variable nutrient sources when base nutrients were low, mirroring animal risk-assessment behavior. Root tips process environmental signals using neurotransmitter-like molecules including glutamate, leading some researchers to describe root systems as distributed brain-like networks.