Why have no plants evolved to move from spot

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Socratea exorrhiza

I wonder if they will in the future.

Would the advantages of evolving to move outweigh the costs of being able to move?

Life that moves often requires a brain or at least ganglia to be able to process sensory inputs, it also requires an effective means to control movement in order to move. These both increase the amount of energy required by that organism in order to survive.

Plants don't need to move in order to survive, that's what seeds are for. A plant's purpose in life is to produce seeds, not to experience as much as possible.

Plants have evolved for a different lifestyle, how much gain would there be for a species to develop in that direction, vs. just remaining as they are?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selaginella

Under dry conditions, some species of Selaginella can survive dehydration. In this state, they may roll up into brown balls and be uprooted, but can rehydrate under moist conditions, become green again and resume growth. This phenomenon is known as poikilohydry, and poikilohydric plants such as Selaginella bryopteris are sometimes referred to as resurrection plants.[8]

^ ok, I see now.

It seems some “resurrection plants” are also tumbleweeds but often they are one or the other. A tumble weed drops seeds or spores to “move”: the original plant doesn’t take root and grow again in a new place it is essentially “dead” as it rolls, but the seeds are alive, or can be. “Resurrection Plants” appear dead and can come back to life, but doesn’t move, it remains rooted.

Those few that are a bit in between might possibly reroot in the new location but this would be rare (if the following article is anything to go bye. Apparently rerooting from cuttings requires skill AND luck for an experienced gardener. But it CAN happen.

https://laidbackgardener.blog/2020/04/1 ... han-alive/

All in all it seems the answer to OP’s question is plants survive as a species by seeds or spores that can move, or like a Venus fly trap, move but stay rooted. Movement of the species seems to happen more often than movement of the individual.

You could say plants are not as individualistic as people.

My wife had some ivy in her wedding bouquet that she later planted in a pot and it grew for years. The original plant was far away. The cutting might be viewed as a clone.

Read about grapefruit cultivation for more on plant cloning.

Cloning is another way a plant can move.

There's a little pea that moves.