Decoding the secret language of plants
While scientists eavesdrop on plant banter, some muse if we’re torturing our green friends.
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AH, the sweet smell of freshly-cut grass. But wait. Is the grass actually… screaming?
That distinct scent could in fact be a loud distress signal. When a plant is being chomped on by pests, that same “cut grass” smell summons parasitic wasps to attack the pests, a 2014 paper in The Plant Journal found.
Scent is believed to be just one of the many secret languages of plants. Trees can’t humblebrag on LinkedIn, but they have the Wood Wide Web, an underground network of roots, fungi and bacteria that could be transmitting information. While plants lack a brain and neurons, they send electrical signals, like our own nervous system.
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