The Plant originally received this name when it was found that one of the best ways to improve the performance of an ineffective and uninspired team was to plant one of this role in it.
You can also this of the Plant as the one who scatters the seeds which the others nourish until they bear fruit.
The Plant is the team's source of original ideas, suggestions and proposals; they are the ideas person. Of course others have ideas too; what distinguishes the Plant's ideas is their originality and the radical-minded approach they bring to problems and obstacles. This type of person is the most imaginative as well as the most intelligent member of the team, and the most likely to start searching for a completely new approach to a problem if the teams starts getting bogged down, or to bring a new insight to a line of action already agreed. They are much more concerned with major issues and fundamentals than with details, and indeed they are liable to miss out on details and make careless mistakes.
This type of person is thrustful and uninhibited in a way that is fairly uncharacteristic of an introvert. They can also be prickly and cause offence to other members of the team, particularly when criticising their ideas. This type of persons criticisms are usually designed to clear the ground for their own ideas and are usually followed by counter-proposals.
The danger with the Plant is that they will devote too much of their creative energy to ideas which may catch their fancy but do not fall in with the team's needs to contribute to its objectives. This type of person may be bad at accepting criticism of their own ideas and quick to take offence and sulk if their ideas are dissected or rejected: indeed, they may switch off and refuse to make any further contribution. It can take quite a lot of careful handling and judicious flatterly (usually by the Co-ordinator) to get the best out of the Plant. But for all this type of persons faults, it is the Plant who provides the vital spark.