Imagine you’re offered a choice between $800 or a coin toss to win $1000. Heads, you end up with the full $1000; tails, you lose everything. For most of us, it’s a no-brainer. We take the $800. But you would likely toss the coin if you were stuck on a desert island with no money, and needed $900 for a flight out. Pea plants, it turns out, make the same decision. When faced with hard times, the species gambles, scientists report. The discovery is the first to show that plants—not just animals—have the ability to switch from being risk-avoiders to risk-takers.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/plants-can-gamble-according-study
