Awareness and integrated information theory identify plant meristems as sites of conscious activity.
Protoplasma May 1, 2021 Anthony Trewavas
Plants, lacking a brain or nervous system, are typically assumed not to be conscious. However, the biological function of consciousness is to guide adaptive behavior based on information. All organisms are aware of their surroundings and modify behavior to survive; awareness requires assessment, which in plants occurs through molecular and electrical mechanisms rather than neural ones. The integrated information theory (IIT), a leading theory of consciousness, does not require brains or synapses. According to IIT, plant awareness involves two kinds of information: communicative extrinsic information from environmental perception, and integrated intrinsic information located in shoot and root meristems and possibly cambium.