Innervegg

Innervegg is a neologism used mainly in speculative biology and design discourse to describe an internal, distributed network that governs growth, signaling, and resource distribution in plant-like organisms. The term foregrounds the analogy between nervous signaling and plant vasculature while acknowledging that real plant systems operate differently.

Etymology and origins: The word combines inner with vegg, a colloquial form of vegetation or vegetables, signaling an internal vegetation-like network. It arose in post-2000 science fiction and design writing as a shorthand for discussions of integrated internal networks.

Conceptual usage: In speculative biology, innervegg can be used to imagine how signals travel within a multicellular, non-animal organism, pairing with concepts from phloem/xylem and plasmodesmata. In design theory and worldbuilding, it serves as a metaphor for self-regulating, modular systems where components communicate through a plant-like internal channel, enabling adaptive growth and resource routing.

Reception and limitations: Because innervegg is not a formal term, definitions vary and depend on context. Critics note that drawing direct parallels with animal nervous systems risks misrepresenting plant biology; proponents argue that the metaphor supports thinking about distributed control in complex systems.

See also: vascular tissue, phloem, xylem, neuromorphic design, bio-inspired design, plant signaling.