Plants couldn’t do anything that can’t be explained by the selfish gene, you see:
The sheer complexity of the communications systems plants demonstrate astonishes us to the point that scientists have refused to believe the evidence. In 1983, plant scientists Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin reported that maple saplings that were exposed to maples damaged by herbivores increased their own defenses. They attributed the increase to the chemical signals released by the injured trees, signals to which the saplings responded.
But, as Cossins recounts, many researchers would not accept that plants could behave so as to benefit neighboring plants but not themselves. Such behavior contradicted evolution theory; it would not be “evolutionarily stable.” However, by 2000, the behavior was demonstrated in a number of species, with the signals being picked up by both members of the sending plant’s own species and by other species as well. “Can Plants Be as Smart as Animals?” at Mind Matters
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See also: Crows Can Be as Smart as Apes But they have quite different brains.
Even Lizards Can Be Smart If you catch them at the right time. But can we give machines what the lizard has by nature?
Is the octopus a “second genesis” of intelligence?
and
Does intelligence depend on a specific type of brain?