Are plants intelligent?

It never struck me that they were intelligent at all. Meristemi asks, "Do plants dream of green sheep?" Clever, and clearly influenced by Philip Dick. Are plants persons? No, although this does not mean natural objects should not have standing or a right to exist, and people do not understand plants as capable organisms as opposed to inanimate objects. As pointed out over at the AoB blog, a primary instigator of such a question was Anthony Trewavas who wrote an AoB article in 2003 about plant intelligence, and others have talked about plant behavior, and there's even a society of plant neurobiology for the study of non-existent plant neurons, all perhaps as a result. "A simple definition of plant intelligence can be coined as adaptively variable growth and development during the lifetime of the individual." Plants of course to react to each other and various aspects of their environment, but calling growth phenomena intelligence, or even a behavior, still seems rather anthropomorphic, and it eludes me how this improves our understanding of plant reactions and communication. As pointed out sometime back, these terms have considerable baggage, unintended implications, and rather than understanding "intelligence" as meaning plants can grow in response to things such that they improve their chances of survival, people immediately begin talking of plant sentience. They should spend more time talking to their petunias. This all leaves me wondering if wading through Matthew Hall's book will be worth the time or not. Let me know if you have a go at it; for now the Phactor is giving it a pass. Such ideas can go no where good; bans on coleslaw and carrot sticks will surely be next.