Ascent and Attachment in Pea Plants: A Matter of Iteration

Pea plants (Pisum sativum L.) can perceive the presence of potential supports in the environment and flexibly adapt their behavior to clasp them. How pea plants control and perfect this behavior during growth remains unexplored. Here, we attempt to fill this gap by studying the movement of the apex and the tendrils at different leaves using three-dimensional (3D) kinematical analysis. We hypothesized that plants accumulate information and resources through the circumnutation movements of each leaf. Information generates the kinematical coordinates for the final launch towards the potential support. Results suggest that developing a functional approach to grasp movement may involve an interactive trial and error process based on continuous cross-talk across leaves. This internal communication provides evidence that plants adopt plastic responses in a way that optimally corresponds to support search scenarios.