Plants are a [lot / loads] smarter than we thought. According to researchers, they are [capacity / capable] of making intelligent decisions [regarding / regardless] risk. Scientists have discovered that [one / once] plant, the humble pea, can make decisions regarding how to survive best, even [though / thought] it does not have a brain. Researchers from the UK's Oxford University and Israel's Tel-Hai College [grown / grew] several pea plants that had their roots separated [among / between] two pots. Each pot contained differing amounts of [nutritious / nutrients] . One pot always had the same amount, while the other pot [varied / various] between a lot and a little. The plants turned out to be remarkably consistent [at / of] diverting their roots to the pot with the most nutrients.
The research paper will be [publishing / published] this week in the 'Current Biology' journal. Researcher Alex Kacelnik said the [experimental / experiment] , "[raises / rises] a question, not about plants, but about animals and [humans / humanise] ". He wondered whether the pea plant might be more [efficient / efficiently] in using its limited decision-making resources than humans. He said: "We have a very [fancy / fancied] brain, but maybe most of the time we're not [using / useful] it." Professor Kacelnik said he did not think that pea plants were [intelligently / intelligent] in the human sense, but that they exhibited complex behaviours to efficiently [take / took] advantage of natural opportunities. It would be interesting to see how our lives would be different if we adopted [similarly / similar] strategies.
