6 incredible things plants can do

At first glance, representatives of the flora are rather boring guys. They stand for themselves, are silent, photosynthesize slowly. Not a very busy life, right? However, in fact, trees and bushes can surprise and have a bunch of various superpowers. Here is some of them.

1. Trees keep in touch with mushrooms

Despite the external equanimity, trees are very inventive. Evolution forced them to develop a variety of survival mechanisms. For example, they created the first prototype of the Internet long before the advent of humanity.

You will say that it sounds crazy, but there is a scientifically proven factM. Giovannetti. At the Root of the Wood Wide Web / Plant Signaling & Behavior: Plants in forests transfer nutrients to each other through underground mycelium networks that entangle their roots.

Mushrooms are in symbiosis with trees - they help them in exchange for feeding. This is called the mycorrhizal network.

Mycelium threads carryN. A. Hynsonew Measuring carbon gains from fungal networks in understory plants from the tribe Pyroleae (Ericaceae): a field manipulation and stable isotope approach / Oecologia between them carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, water and many other substances. If a tree is in a shaded undergrowth and has problems with photosynthesis, it sends a signal to its more fortunate brethren through the mycelium, and they feed it.

But trees of the same species not only help each other. Sometimes they also try to harm competitors by throwing toxic substances into the mycelium in order to survive unwanted alien neighbors from their territory.

And especially arrogant plants are generally killed in photosynthesis and begin to feed.J. R. Leake. The biology of myco ‑ heterotrophic ('saprophytic') plants / New Phytologist exclusively due to nutrients in the mycorrhizal network. This is about the same as connecting to the neighbors' power lines and tyrit kilowatts.

2. Plants send danger warnings to relatives

Maybe you think that plants are pretty defenseless and can't do anything when someone starts eating them. This is not entirely true, because there are many poisonous flora representatives. But even if you do not take these dangerous comrades into account - and without poison, plants have ways to protect themselves from being eaten, and sometimes quite original ones.

For example, a cowpea from the legume family canPlants Tag Insect Herbivores With An Alarm / Science News literally call for help if it is eaten by the caterpillars of the autumn moth. When the larva begins to eat the leaves, the cowpea produces special phyto compounds that make the caterpillar consider it inedible.

And as if this is not enough. The surrounding cowpea bushes catch these compounds, understand that there is an enemy nearby, and begin to intensively generate similar substances so that the pests and they are considered tastelessK. Sugimoto. Intake and transformation to a glycoside of (Z) -3 ‑ hexenol from infested neighbors reveals a mode of plant odor reception and defense / PNAS.

A similar defense mechanism is possessed by the familiar to all of us tomato, as well as tobacco, sorghum, rice and many other crops.

True, there is a right for a cunning tomato. Some types of especially ingenious caterpillars have learned to developSilencing the alarm / PSU together with saliva, substances that drown out the signals of eaten plants.

3. Trees employ entire armies of bodyguards

Unfortunately, most trees cannot give out branches to the aggressors, as did the Rattling Willow from the Harry Potter series. But this does not mean that they are ready to stand and endure in silence. Some of them, on occasion, callV. Rico ‑ Gray, P. Oliveira. The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions to the aid of hordes of their little friends who just come and solve problems.

For example, the goby acacia is symbiotic with the ants of the species Pseudomyrmex ferruginea. These are aggressive predators, without hesitation killing any other insect that invades their territory.

Acacia produces special proteins that interfere with digestion in insects and can even kill them. But for the antsD. J. Martins. Not all ants are equal: obligate acacia ants provide different levels of protection against mega-herbivores / African Journal of Ecology they are harmless. The tree feeds its defenders, and they respond by attacking all living things that try to harm it - even livestock.

Moreover, acacia lures ants to its damaged branches, which someone is currently eating. With the help of special signaling substances, she sends instructions to her soldiers where the aggressor is and whom to attack.

Other trees not only use insects as their personal army, but also feed on them. For example, ants of the genus Azteca live in the leaves of a plant called cecropia and protect it from competitors, the leaf-cutting ants. In addition, they feedP. S. Oliveira, S. Koptur. Ant-Plant Interactions: Impacts of Humans on Terrestrial Ecosystems plant: 98% of the nitrogen that cecropium receives is extracted by it from the waste of ants' vital activity.

4. And put the bees on caffeine

As is known, passion for coffee sometimes it gets really unhealthy. And it is sometimes very difficult to give up an invigorating drink, even for people, creatures with free will. And insects, with their primitive instincts, have no chance at all against caffeine and are ready to become obedient slaves for it.

According to researchM. J. Couvillon. Caffeinated Forage Tricks Honeybees into Increasing Foraging and Recruitment Behaviors / Cell, plants of the genus coffee and citrus fruits use caffeine to attract bees - they like nectar with a high content of this alkaloid. The substance stimulates the neurons of insects, they begin to dance more actively and attract more and more of their relatives, pollinating the plant.

Caffeine, as foundG. A. Wright. Caffeine in floral nectar enhances a pollinator's memory of reward / Science scientists at the University of Newcastle in the UK, affects the behavior of bees, and they begin to pollinate only those flowers that supply them. As a result, we have fooled insects planted on alkaloids, and plants shamelessly exploiting them for the sake of reproduction.

5. Some plants can smell at all.

It sounds crazy, but the sense of smell is used not only by animals, but also by plants. As botanist Daniel Chamovitz writes, the latter catchD. Chamovitz. What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses smells in the air and from them determine, for example, the degree of ripening of their fruits or the presence of predatory insects nearby.

But the most surprising thing is that some especially cunning plants use their sense of smell not only for defense, but also for attack.

For example, dodder, known to all gardeners, is a parasite that coils around other plants and feeds on their juices. Dr. Consuelo de Moraes, a biologist at the University of Pennsylvania, statesDo Plants Smell Other Plants? This One Does, Then Strangles What It Smells / NPRthat it is with the help of the smell that she finds victims that can be braided.

In the experiments conducted by de Moraes, the parasite did not try to capture the models of tomatoes and accurately identified live tomatoes even in the dark. The smell of the tomato allowed her to understand which way to grow in order to get to the source of food.

6. And even explode

Meet this khura cracking from the euphorbia family. At home in the Amazon forests, it is called dynamiteSandbox Tree / Britannica tree.

The fact is that its pumpkin-like fruits, when ripe, literally explode, scattering thorns, seeds and poisonous juice around. The power of the detonated projectile is quite enough to injure a person. In addition, cattle are constantly suffering from hura.

When consumed internally, hura fruit leads to spasms, vomit and diarrhea. So even if the one who wished to taste them survives the explosion and gets to the pulp, he will not leave with impunity.

And, as if the tree was not enough to grow hand grenades on the branchesM. D. Dwaine. Explosive seed dispersal in Hura Crepitans L. (Euphorbiaceae) / New Phytologist, it has also covered itself with sharp thorns that can cause serious trauma when touched.

The juice flowing from the broken off thorns causes a terrible rash, and if it gets into the eyes, then blindness. Local tribes use it to poison fish.