Plants on the Move: Decision-Making Underlying Support-Searching in Pea Plants

The process of finding a suitable support is crucial for the growth and development of climbing plants, as those that succeed in finding one tend to have better performance and fitness compared to those that do not. While there have been numerous studies that have investigated the details of how climbing plants seek and attach to supports, there has been relatively little research on the ecological importance of this behavior and the elements that influence it. One of the elements is the diameter of the support, which can affect its suitability for climbing plants. If the support diameter is too large, the plant may not be able to keep tensional forces and may lose its attachment to the support. To further explore this issue, we experimented with pea plants by giving them choices between supports of different diameters while tracking their movement using a three-dimensional motion analyzing software. Our results indicated that the way climbing plants move can vary depending on the number of potential supports available in the surroundings. In addition, when presented with a thin and a thick support, the plants tended to prefer the former over the latter. These findings elucidate how climbing plants make decisions about support searching and suggest that they are capable of adapting their behavior in response to different environmental conditions.