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Phytosemiotics is a branch of biosemiotics that studies the Semiosis capabilities present in plants. Some functions that plants perform that utilize this simple semiosis includes cellular recognition, plant perception, intercellular communication, and plant signal transduction. Comparative to the sign processing present in animals and humans, phytosemiotics occurs at the cellular level, with communication between the cells of plants acting as a means of observing their surroundings and making rudimentary decisions.
An important aspect of phytosemiotics is understanding how plants undergo semiosis differently than how animals experience it. One important difference is the lack of 'receptor' and 'effector' organs in plants, unlike animals who are able to see their environment and interact with it in a more direct way than plants are able to. While plants may not have tradition receptor or effector organs in the same way animals do, plants do use signal transduction to send external signals throughout the plant to make simple decisions. Another important difference is the types of signs plants are able to process. While plants can only process Indexicality, animals can also process Iconicity and humans can further process Symbol.
Another challenge in legitimizing phytosemiotics as a field of study in semiotics is the blurring of lines between animal life and plant life. In researching plant biology there is a risk of prescribing human traits onto plants. This fact makes discerning the legitimacy of plant semiosis and plant communication difficult. However, if fully recognized, phytosemiotics could expand semiotic research beyond a focus on human or Zoosemiotics semiotics into the other kingdoms of life, including Fungus and bacteria. It could also change how we view the components that make up effective sign processing and how non-human/animal life is capable of more advanced sign processing.
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