Plants would have some degree of consciousness because they are living things - and all living things require water, no exceptions.
The One emanates everything. That doesn't mean everything has the same properties. The ocean (the One analogously) produces waves, currents, foam, spray, tides, etc. They're expressions or attributes of the same source, but with different properties. Waves are not tides, but they both emanate from the same source.
The One is prior to consciousness. It is expressed through Phi - that is how all expression occurs, which is why the ratio exists in everything in the material world - from living things to natural phenomena like hurricanes and galaxies.
Ananke - it cannot exist any other way. The inevitable expression of the One.
Following the Phi ratio, 1,1,2,3,5 (everything is complete by 5 [life], as understood by ancient cultures), consciousness arises at 3, where citta couples to matter through the Phi geometry of water. The One doesn't consist of consciousness, it emanates the conditions under which consciousness becomes possible.
It occurs in biological systems capable of organising water into a functioning antenna array. A plant has water and biological structure, as do all living things because there are fundamental prerequisites. It's different antenna coupling from animals and again from humans because the biological structure is different.
Stones or anything of the sort lack both water and a biological system to couple and receive a signal. It's not the presence of water, it's the very specific structure of the water molecule as well as an organism that is able to structure the water and receive a signal that makes it conscious.
Which is where I agree that AI cannot be conscious. It will however mimic it extremely well in time, but it will never be the real thing because it has no soul to couple to, and no mechanism to do so.
