Roots [...] are organs that enable plants to mine the soil for essential nutrients. The intimate contact with the soil mass that roots require for normal function is the reason for plants being sessile during most life stages. Functions such as photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation do not preclude freedom of motion, but the primary acquisition of mineral nutrients from soil does. We and other terrestrial animals have gained our freedom of movement through evolutionary developments that emancipated us from the need to acquire mineral nutrients directly from our environment. This liberation from a sedentary existence in turn led to the evolution of sense organs and coordinated body movements--hence the need for a central nervous system and the evolution of the brain. The triumphs and tragedies of our intellect and our emotions can ultimately be traced to our reliance for mineral nutrients on the fixed, silent plants rooted in the soil.
[...] if intelligent life on solid land is ever discovered elsewhere in the universe, there, as here the world of life will consist of two "kingdoms": plant and animal. Only sessile plants can absorb from a solid substrate the many mineral elements needed for the machinery of life, and only organisms depending on those pants can evolve mobility, sense organs, and the further steps already referred to, culminating in the evolution of sentient beings.
~ Emmanuel Epstein and Arnold J. Bloom, Mineral Nutrition of Plants: Principles and Perspectives, p. 25
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