plants can communicate

Plants have memory, communicate, perceive, adapt and are social

/ susanbulanda / Leave a comment

With the use of sophisticated tools, scientists have been able to determine the life of plants. They have found that plants can perceive and respond to a changing environment.

They use their roots, leaves and flowers to take in information such as the amount of light, water, nutrients, that are available as well as the presence of predators and pathogens. Some trees will give off a chemical when attacked by a disease or an insect that signals the other trees around it to release a protective hormone. 

How does something without a “brain” accomplish this? Researchers have found that plant memory involves sensory perception, intracellular signaling pathways, and molecular events that allows them to store and retrieve information. Plant metabolism is the driving force of plant memory.

To further understand plant memory and communication researchers focused on the spruce trees in the Costa Bocche forest in Italy. They attached sensors to the trees to record their reaction to a solar eclipse. Their studies showed how the trees were aware of the eclipse and responded to it. They also found that the older trees support the younger ones.

Other studies have shown that a parent tree will help its offspring survive by feeding it most of the nutrients that it gathers from its roots. That the trees recognize its relatives.

Plants can also sense and react to color and sound. Years ago people were encouraged to talk to their plants. Some nurseries sell a red mulch to put under tomato plants that increases the yield of the plants.

The next time you take a walk in a garden or the forest, feel free to talk to the plants around you. What surprises may be in store.

Auge, G., Hankofer, V. Groth, M., Antoniou-Kourounioti R., Ratikainen I. and Lampei C. (2023) “Plant environmental memory: implications, mechanisms, and opportunities for plant scientists and beyond” AoB PLANTS. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plad032.

Book: What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-plants-think-daniel-chamovitz/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-observed-an-astonishing-response-of-trees-when-they-left-sensors-on-them-during-solar-eclipse/ar-AA1E6OM9?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=823c87caed8c4dc98cafb164f9004b04&ei=45

https://newatlas.com/biology/trees-knowledge-eclipse/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mother-trees-are-intelligent-they-learn-and-remember/v

Plants are smarter than you think

/ susanbulanda / 2 Comments

The concept of plants “thinking” and “communicating” are mind boggling to some people. The field of plant neurobiology is a fascinating subject that can stretch the imagination. While I normally do not post article of this nature, I wanted to share some of the research on this topic.

One of the latest articles that deal with plants has shown that plants feel pressure as well as a lack of pressure, and know the difference. Although they do not have nerves as we do, they still have a system that lets them know when something touches them and when the pressure is relieved.

Plants also communicate and support each other. For example, the mother tree will feed its saplings through the roots. This is how young saplings in deep forests survive. They are often in shaded areas where they cannot photosynthesize due to a lack of sunlight and depend on the parent tree to feed them.

If that is not enough, studies have shown that some plants (and perhaps all) have the ability to “hear” sounds. They detect certain frequencies and respond to them, yet ignore other frequencies.

When plants detect danger, such as a disease, they send out a signal to the plants around them who respond by preparing their own defense as a response.  

If you think about all of this, it expands the concept of communication and even relationships beyond what we experience. For me, it opens my mind to what animals can do, and that we have just scratched the surface in understanding the depth of their world.

I hope my readers have enjoyed my musings.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/#:~:text=For%20young%20saplings%20in%20a,their%20roots%20through%20the%20network.

https://now.northropgrumman.com/can-plants-hear-the-science-of-sound-sensing-flora

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3405699/#:~:text=Plants%20emit%20volatile%20organic%20compounds,own%20defense%20weapons%20in%20response.

Journal Reference:

  1. Alexander H. Howell, Carsten Völkner, Patrick McGreevy, Kaare H. Jensen, Rainer Waadt, Simon Gilroy, Hans-Henning Kunz, Winfried S. Peters, Michael Knoblauch. Pavement cells distinguish touch from letting go. Nature Plants, 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41477-023-01418-9

Cite This Page:

Washington State University. “Plants can distinguish when touch starts and stops, study suggests.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 31 May 2023. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230531101953.htm>.