“Plants are boring.” That has been the belief of mankind for generations. Animals are obviously highly complex creatures with complex organ systems, and even more intricate organs like the brain. The animal brain is able to sense surroundings, detect imminent danger, form relationships with other animals, and recognize families. However, even without a brain, plants are capable of all this and more. For example, Parasitic plants such as the Dionaea muscipula are able to sense and trap their prey, the Mimosa pudica has the ability to sense touch and wilt, and plants like the Cuscuta Pentagona can sense volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from tomato plants to form a parasitic relationship (Biedrzycki M et al. 2010). Furthermore, some positive ways that plants exhibit communication includes kinship. As children, humans are taught to share their toys and food with their siblings. Plants it seems, have the same concept to ensure optimal growth and survival, as they act selflessly towards their relatives, share resources, and exhibit less competition and more cooperation with their kin. Plants are able to recognize fellow kin through responses to VOCs from relatives and perform acts of altruism to kin by resource partitioning amongst siblings through root allocation (Karban R et al. 2013). The current research on plant kinship and areas of future research will be discussed, as well as the controversies surrounding this subject. Despite the debate on plant kinship,
