Includes bibliographical references and index.

A feeling for the organism -- Plant behaviour foundations -- The origins of photosynthesis : what are the salient characteristics of living systems? -- The origins of photosynthesis : the evolution of life and photosynthesis -- Why did plants become multicellular? -- Convergent evolution is common in plant systems -- Are angiosperms more complex than mammals? -- Plant behaviour : first intimations of self-organization -- The varieties of plant behaviour -- The self organizing plant : lessons from swarm intelligence -- Self-organization : cambium as the integration assessor -- Self-organizing capacity in leaf behaviour -- Self-organization and behaviour in root systems -- Self-organization in response to gravity -- Signals other than gravity -- Behavioural characteristics of seeds : elements of dormancy -- Games plants play -- Competition and cooperation between individual plants for mates and territory : the recognition of self -- The nature of intelligent behaviour : cognition or adaptation? -- Brains and nerve cells are not necessary for intelligent behaviour -- Intelligent genomes -- Cellular basis of intelligent behaviour -- Cell organization and protein networks -- Instinct, reflex, and conditioned behaviours : characteristics of plant behaviour? -- Intelligence and consciousness -- Intelligent foraging?

Abstract
This book takes as its theme the statement by the Nobel prize winning plant biologist, Barbara McClintock in 1984; “A goal for the future would be to determine the extent of knowledge the cell has of itself and how it uses that knowledge in a thoughtful manner when challenged”. The response to ‘challenge’ is behaviour and ‘thoughtful’ responses are intelligent and inextricably linked to fitness. Cellular knowledge derives from the complex self-organising system that constructs the cell from its constituent molecules. This book fleshes out McClintock’s superb insight into plant cells and organisms. Early chapters describe the nature of life, its origins, how and why plants became multicellular and evolutionary convergence. A series of chapters on intelligent self-organising behaviour highlight the parallels with swarm intelligence, the integrating aspects of the cambium on branch initiation and growth, unusual behaviour of leaves, how roots reconstruct their sensing systems and are capable of self-recognition, and games plants play. The nature of intelligence forms nearly one whole chapter with the possibility that species are intelligent. Substantive evidence that brains are not needed for intelligent behaviour is posed leading to intelligent genomes and foraging. Finally in the context of McClintock’s ‘thoughtful’, the vexed question of consciousness is discussed and in that context J. C. Bose’s “plant nervous system” receives its rightful recognition.