In 2025, a paper in Cognitive Science showed that the “sensitive plant” Mimosa pudica can track the number of light–dark cycles it experiences and adjust its leaf movements in anticipation of when light is likely to return, even when the timing of those cycles is changed.
The authors argue that the simplest explanation is that the plants are “enumerating” discrete events rather than just reacting to elapsed time, hinting at a form of non-neuronal information processing we usually reserve for brains.
Reference:Peter M. Vishton & Paige J. Bartosh, “Can Mimosa pudica Plants Enumerate Light Exposure Events?”, Cognitive Science (2025), DOI: 10.1111/cogs.70161.
#plantintelligence