What is plant arithmetic?

Plant arithmetic is a form of plant intelligence and number sense where plants appear to carry out arithmetic operations. Examples of species displaying this behavior include the Venus flytrap and Arabidopsis thaliana. This phenomenon sits within the broader study of plant cognition.

What we know

• Plant arithmetic is defined as a form of plant intelligence or cognition where plants appear to perform arithmetic operations. [1, 2]
• It is considered a specific type of number sense observed in certain flora. [1, 2]
• Specific plants known to exhibit plant arithmetic include the Venus flytrap and Arabidopsis thaliana. [2]

Where to go next

• a case in pointWhich plants exhibit number sense?
• the bigger pictureWhat is plant cognition?
• compared withHow do human mathematical arithmetic operations work?
• whenWhat are the historical origins of human arithmetic?
• how it workedHow does human number theory connect to arithmetic?
• an unexpected connectionHow do prime numbers relate to arithmetic structures?While plants perform basic arithmetic operations in nature, abstract human mathematics relies on prime numbers as the foundational building blocks for all integers through the fundamental theorem of arithmetic.

Sources

• [1]plant arithmetic (Wikidata Q28868350) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Plant arithmetic · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Arithmetic · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Prime number · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Terence Tao · CC BY-SA 4.0