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Plants “panic” when it rains
- dunstad 7y agoIf you liked this one, you might also enjoy reading about the mycorrhizal networks some plants can use to communicate between each other: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden...
- dickeytk 7y agomy favorite radiolab episode is about this: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/from-tree-to-shining-tree https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/from-...
- osobo 7y agoAnd/or http://nautil.us/issue/77/underworlds/never-underestimate-the-intelligence-of-trees http://nautil.us/issue/77/underworlds/never-underestimate-th...
- DoctorOetker 7y agoI have eaten fruits and nuts, and pissed and defecated in nature, so I have also communicated with plants both ways...
- breadandcrumbel 7y agoLink to the research: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/10/25/1911758116 https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/10/25/1911758116 >“As to why plants would need to panic when it rains, strange as it sounds, rain is actually the leading cause of disease spreading between plants,” said University of Western Australia’s Professor Harvey Millar, co-author of the study. “When a raindrop splashes across a leaf, tiny droplets of water ricochet in all directions. These droplets can contain bacteria, viruses, or fungal spores.” “The sick leaves can act as a catapult and in turn spread smaller droplets with pathogens to plants several feet away. It is possible that the healthy plants close by want to protect themselves,
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- kris-s 7y agoWhat is described in the article doesn't fit the definition of panic. I'm torn because maybe I wouldn't have read the article without the needless anthropomorphization. Plants are awesome and interesting to me because they're so planty and not animaly.
- las_balas_tres 7y agoI agree. The word "panic" to me implies a certain mental state. Something plants lack.
- antonvs 7y ago...assuming panpsychism is not true.
- erikpukinskis 7y agoGiven plants utilize electrical signals I don’t see how you could argue they don’t have “mental states”?
- las_balas_tres 7y agoCPU's and other electronic devices utilize electrical signals. Do you think they have mental states ?
- dickeytk 7y agoA defense mechanism that is triggered by a hormone? Doesn't seem terribly far off
- droithomme 7y agoHe makes an interesting point. Some plants have a response to rain triggered by a hormone. To ascribe the term panic to it though might possibly be mischaracterizing the response because of the tendency to anthropomorphize.
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- sigmaprimus 7y agoIt would have been nice to see what particular plants were used in this study. I somehow doubt that all plants react this way. Considering some plants grow under water, others such as sequoias are dependent on fog for their irrigation. Interesting article none the less.
- quixoticelixer- 7y agoSequoias still see a lot of rainfall where they live
- sigmaprimus 7y agohttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fog-that-nourishes-california-redwoods-declining/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fog-that-nourishe... https://baynature.org/article/fog-and-redwoods-demystifying-the-mist/ https://baynature.org/article/fog-and-redwoods-demystifying-...
- EdwardDiego 7y agoWe have plenty of redwoods growing in my country (NZ) that aren't watered by fogs but by just plain ol' rain. While I'm sure that fogs are essential for redwoods in the California climate, it doesn't mean they are inherently coupled - they grow quite happily in the inland Canterbury Plains, bugger all fog, but enough rain to get them watered. Hell, we even named a suburb after one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwood,_Christchurch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwood,_Christchurch
- sigmaprimus 7y agoFair enough, interesting fact just as all roosters are chickens but not all chickens are roosters, not all redwoods are sequoias. I actually mixed them up too. http://sequoia.visionbib.com/sequoia-redwood.html http://sequoia.visionbib.com/sequoia-redwood.html
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- croh 7y agoRelated - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose#Study_of_metal_fatigue_and_cell_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose#Study_of...
- julienreszka 7y agoVery funny thought to imagine plants panicking when it rains.
- wcoenen 7y agoThe article talks about signals and proteins that activate genes, but it doesn't say what actual response of the plant is being implemented by those genes. I thought maybe this was an omission, but the paper doesn't seem to talk about that either.
- lawzup 7y agoSo, what defenses are triggered? Seems like this article is half written. Where's the cause and effect? What are these protective effects you mention?
- adfkbuvasdas 7y agoThe instruction to pour water straight into the pot, and not onto the plant, always struck me as odd. Maybe it’s one of those small ancient nuggets of knowledge that we struggle to justify but just work. Might be a big leap still, but reactions like the one from this paper could justify not spraying water all over my house plants.
- mytailorisrich 7y agoTap water is often hard so pouring it on the plant leaves deposits behind. Another justification is that when it's sunny water droplets on leaves act as lenses and might burn the leaves. It is also known that wet leaves increase the chance of fungi, mildew, etc. taking hold on them. The article shows that plants are also well aware of that!
- swiley 7y agoI was always told that the leaves just don’t need it and it gets in the way.
- lawlessone 7y agoI wonder would pouring water onto the leaves of chilis plants encourage it to produce hotter peppers? The substance that makes chilis spicy is a natural anti fungal.
- saimiam 7y agoI have a chili plant at home with 4-5 baby chilies growing. Once those have ripened, I'm going to do this experiment.
- kaikai 7y agoPlants do most of their water absorption through their roots, not their leaves. They're also prone to fungal problems when their leaves stay damp. There's no reason to water the leaves rather than the dirt around the roots, unless you're applying a foliar spray or watering something like a tillandsia that doesn't normally live on the ground. The article says it's no surprise plants panic because water spreads disease, which is exactly what we're avoiding by not watering the leaves. It's not to save our plants' feelings, although the root cause of the feelings and the problem we're avoiding might be the same.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sebsito 7y agoCheckmate, vegans.
- vorticalbox 7y agoWhat defences do plants use in this case? Article describes why but not what.
- meigwilym 7y ago> "One of the chemicals produced is a hormone called jasmonic acid that is used to send signals between plants," Professor Millar said. Would this be "that smell" that sometimes lingers after rain fall?
- tmshu1 7y agoMaybe you’re referring to the smell of “petrichor”, which comes from the soil getting wet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor
- earthboundkid 7y agoHonestly, same.
- codingdave 7y ago"Panic" is an anthropomorphism for what is really going on. Plants react to water. That makes complete sense. Humans react to it when it falls on us as well. Maybe we go inside. Maybe we open an umbrella. Maybe we go dance through the fields and enjoy a summer rain. But whatever we do, they are reactions, not "Panic."
- Enginerrrd 7y agoWhile I mostly agree with you, I just want to play devil's advocate here a little bit. Plants and fungi have some very complex interactive networks capable of various forms of individual, inter-individual, and inter-species communication and intelligent decision making. From our perspective though, these interactions and decisions play out over some very different time scales from our own cognition. Suppose for a second that a tree was intelligent enough to be sentient, it would be VERY difficult for either the tree or us to recognize the intelligence and cognition in the other. "Panic" responses, fear, and the whole manner of physiologic changes that happen in a human didn't spring up over-night. These pathways evolved a VERY long time ago. An insect has some obvious "panic" type of responses to predation attempts that are not so different from our own. As you climb up the ladder in intelligence to mammals, and then all the way to humans, there is absolutely no clear line where "panic" suddenly exists as I believe you would define it. It's a very smooth and gradual transition. Even in a human, if you've ever watched one come back to consciousness after a seizure or wake up from anesthesia, you'll see that it's also a very smooth and gradual transition to what we'd call consciousness and sentience. It's not at all an on/off switch. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of the same neurotransmitters and hormones fill the same role in a plant response to dangerous conditions as they would humans. I know many of the same signalling molecules are in use. Evolution doesn't like to fix what ain't broke.
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoTime scale isn't enough to prevent us from recognizing intelligence and cognition in trees (I can't speak for the trees recognizing us). Look at their works, their accomplishments, their cooperative social organization. They've had a long, long time to show us that. Oh! They've done nothing! No tribes nor social exchanges - never even mention hospitals and lasers and money and law... No, trees are not sentient, intelligent nor exhibiting cognition.