Many people are convinced that talking to plants helps them flourish. But how many are willing to acknowledge that plants have a mental life? And yet, if we consider that thinking is nothing more than the ability to receive stimuli from the environment, process them, and implement strategies aimed at achieving a purpose, then we can say that plants do indeed experience a form of cognition. Plants remember, move, decide, orient themselves, and interact with one another. Furthermore, they can be opportunistic, generous, or deceptive. This unusual and fascinating look into the secret life of the plants reveals that they are much more complex, active, sensitive, and similar to us than we might expect.

Umberto Castiello teaches Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology at the University of Padua.