Lost in Space
How would they interact with each other if they lack the apparatus to communicate? How would they understand the concept of "selfdom" at all without senses to realize that other things exist?
The most important question that you need to answer, therefore, is how they sense and interact with their environment. That'll create a framework for everything else.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
The Best Worst Psychonaut
I will be honest, there's not much 'special' stuff going on for them in the senses department, at least not how I'm thinking of them now. I imagine them being able to 'see' and 'hear' via sensory organs, and they can 'talk', or more accurately mimic the sound of speech by 'burping' out air through their bodies, as was described in another trope entry. :V
When it comes to non-standard senses, I would imagine they can 'taste' the quality of the soil they're in by their roots, and also sense very fine tremors or underground objects this way. Furthermore, I would imagine that, because of photosynthesis and all, they can 'feel' light and discern different 'qualities' of light; so clear light on a sunny day is ideal, but light filtered through a dusty window less so. Might need to think more on this, but all in all they have very strong senses - strong enough to be a Game-Breaker if they could move around by themselves. Though the one area they'd be lacking in is smell - and by 'lacking in' I mean 'they have no sense of smell'. :V
edited 20th Apr '18 9:59:44 PM by PresidentStalkeyes
"If you think like a child, you will do a child's work."
Certain kinds of trees in areas where giraffes live can send chemical signals to other trees in the area when they detect they're getting eaten, so that the others will know to start releasing stuff into their leaves to make themselves unappetizing in the hopes that the giraffe will go away. It wouldn't be like talking as we think of it, but I could see intelligent plant aliens developing a complex language with pheromones.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Trees can also come into direct physical contact through their roots, and I could see this species as having a lot of control over where they extend their root system.
Cape Malleum Majorem
They obviously wouldn't have the predatory instincts of a carnivore, nor the "fight or flight" instincts of an herbivore. Most probably, they'd have the mindset of the Ents from Lord of the Rings — don't be hasty, weather the storm and wait things out, etc.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
They probably would be more inclined to patience and long-term planning, since plants naturally operate in cycles of seasons and don't exactly have much spontaneity. Since most plants can't really move freely or initiate action on their own, they kind of just wait for things to happen, so I'd think sapient plants would be more on the passive side.
edited 2nd May '18 4:04:11 PM by danime91
On the whole I agree that "most plants are passive/patient," but in addition to a seasonal view of life, they'd also have plenty of things to worry about on a daily basis—the soil quality, water intake, too much heat/cold, blight/rot, storm damage, pests, and being able to detect unusual changes in all of those things.
They'd LOVE gardeners and farmers with all their assorted plant-growing knowledge.
Also, if the soil is JUST THAT BAD with lack of nutrition, you get meat-eating plants. (As opposed to the ones who just "eat" meat by absorbing the blood/nutrients through their roots.)
edited 3rd May '18 10:29:32 PM by Sharysa
So recently I had this idea for a race of aliens that are essentially intelligent plants. They're not exactly sessile (i.e. completely immobile), but they are rooted to the ground. So they can gesture and talk and all that good stuff, they just can't move from their patch of soil without some kind of external aid. In addition, since I figured it wouldn't make a lot of sense for these plants to just naturally come into being, I also figured they were the result of GM crops going a little out of control (and they can still produce what they were originally farmed for - they don't need to be killed in order to collect said product). Much like Venus Flytraps, they can eat insects for extra nutrients but they still derive most of it from the soil.
With all of this in mind, I was wondering to myself what their psychology would be like, combining the fact that they can't move with the fact that they were originally man-made (sorta). I should point out that this is way on the soft end of Sci-Fi, as you may have deduced, so scientific accuracy is not something I'm particularly concerned about - furthermore, don't think an idea you may have is 'too silly' because I'm all for tongue-in-cheek stuff as long as there's some logic behind it (twisted though that logic may be :V).
"If you think like a child, you will do a child's work."