Do Plants Have Personalities?

CrowdScience listener George is showing Alex Lathbridge around a small, dark, and extremely hot shed, just outside the city of Accra in Ghana. Inside are row after row of shelves, stacked high with bulging grow-bags. And out of some of them, gorgeous cascades of oyster mushrooms are bursting into bloom.

We’re on George’s mushroom farm, and as he keeps track of their progress, he’s noticed something interesting. Even though the conditions in his grow-shed are tightly controlled – they have exactly the same food, water, and light as each other – nevertheless, they respond differently. Some are more vigorous than others, some bloom quicker, others last longer, and some are more tolerant when the conditions change. And this got George wondering. Could ‘brainless’ lifeforms like mushrooms, and plants, have different ‘personalities’? Do they experience the world differently, and live their lives differently from each other?

Alex Lathbridge is on the case, and the quest for an answer takes him deep into the dense foliage of a botanical garden, into the high tech labs of a crop genetic research centre, and right up high into the rainforest canopy.