Behavior by Blueprint: A Multiplicative Law Across the Plant Kingdom

This study advances a generalizable law of behavior across the plant kingdom, proposing that biological action can be modeled as a triadic product of Archetype × Drive × Culture. Drawing on Tinbergen’s four ethological questions and recent advances in plant neurobiology and systems biology, we evaluate whether conserved behavioral outputs in plants, algae, and fungi adhere to this formal equation. Using empirical findings from Arabidopsis thaliana, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and Neurospora crassa, we demonstrate that disruption of any single component—genetic programming (A), hormonal/metabolic activation (D), or environmental modulation (C)—leads to the collapse of behavior. Comparative analysis reveals that these diverse taxa exhibit structured, adaptive responses that emerge only under full triadic integration. We further propose a taxonomy of plant behavioral systems analogous to animal ethological models. This work suggests that non-neural organisms enact behavior through computational architectures as precise and constrained as those seen in higher animals, offering a unified theoretical framework for cross-kingdom behavior.