Researchers Have Finally Recorded Plants "Talking" On Camera And Warning Each Other About Attacking Insects

[Judi Lynn]

February 17, 2024 at 3:22 pm

by Trisha Leigh

We have known for some time that plants are more “aware” than we previously realized – or at least, that they have capabilities that go beyond what one might assume a plant to have. Now, this video showing two of them “communicating” points to an even greater depth of understanding.

Plants are surrounded by a fine mist of airborne compounds that they use as a form of communication – mostly to warn other plants of predators and other threats. The “smell” they put off can keep hungry herbivores from feeding while also warning neighboring plants that they need to do the same.



Scientists have been cataloguing species that employ this method – around 80 so far – since the 1980s. Now, a team of researchers in Japan are using video to reveal how exactly plants receive and respond to these alarms raised by their close neighbors.

Molecular biologists Yuri Aratani and Takuya Uemura created a pump to transfer compounds sent by injured plants suffering attacks by insects to their still-whole neighbors. The plants had been genetically altered to shine bright green when they detected an influx of calcium ions – which is also a way that human brain cells communicate.

More:
https://twistedsifter.com/2024/02/researchers-have-finally-recorded-plants-talking-on-camera-and-warning-each-other-about-attacking-insects/