A common houseplant can count: the surprising scientific discovery

Plants don't count the way we do, but some carry out surprisingly sophisticated operations. That's the point of a recent piece in BBC Science Focus (September 28).

The flytrap that counts its prey

The Venus flytrap famously snaps its leaves shut when it senses a bug moving. But an international study published in 2016 in Current Biology showed it can tally higher than two: it only triggers digestion after several successive stimuli, to avoid wasting energy on a false catch.

The cress that does division

Thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), an inoffensive cousin of cabbage widely used in plant studies, does something akin to division: it gauges the starch stored in its leaves and divides it by the time remaining before dawn to make it through the night.

Not intelligence, but ingenuity

Scientists avoid the word "intelligence": these are survival mechanisms, not a primitive brain. But the result is, as the magazine puts it, "surprisingly sophisticated".

Source: BBC Science Focus — Experts discover a common houseplant can count