Neurobiological View of Plants and Their Body Plan - Communication in Plants: Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life - page 29

Fig. 2.4. Body plan of maize ( Zea mays ). Note the very rich root system within which there
arenumerousindeterminatelygrowingrootapiceswhichareinvolvedininorganicnutrition
for the whole plant and processing of neurobiological information (the anterior pole of the
plant body). On the other hand, there are only few shoot apices with determinate growth
which eventually transform into plant sexual organs (the posterior pole of the plant body)
whereas there are only few shoot apices (Fig. 2.4). This feature makes the
'serial plant brain' extremely robust and the amount of processed informa-
tion must be immense.
2.8
Ancient Fungal-Like Nature of Roots
The most characteristic feature of roots is their invasive behaviour and
exploratory nature based on their ability to actively penetrate soil in the
permanent search for water and ions. In this respect, roots resemble fungi.
Green shoots are less exploratory owing to the omnipresent light and spe-
cialization for photosynthesis. In holoparasitic plants like Rafflesia ,the
green part of the plant is missing completely, the root system being replaced