Science Explains If Plants Have Memory

Are plants capable of learning and retaining information? Studies are showing that some members of the kingdom plantae may have a memory.

Be careful how you treat plants - some of them might remember what you've done to them.

A recent study by ecologist Monica Galiano showed that plants may have memory and the ability to learn. Scientists have also discovered that plants have abilities usually only seen in animals. Galiano studied the Mimosa pudica, a very interesting plant that folds its leaves when touched. After several minutes, its leaves return to their unfolded "calm" state.

She tried to "scare" her test plants by dropping them to see if their leaves reacted the same way. The plants' leaves curled up as usual, but only for the first few rounds of the test. Over the course of one day, Galiano dropped the test plants for a total of 60 times, and as you can probably guess - they stopped reacting to the fall.

According to standards applied to animals by scientists, Mimosa pudica was showing the ability to learn.

Scientists have shown that cell clusters in plant embryos act like brain cells, telling the embryo to grow. Other plants react to situations and their surroundings, and are using that information to decide how to develop. Researchers are hoping if they can assess how plants do this they may one day be "trainable", thus making severe conditions like drought one less thing future farmers will have to worry about.