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Some trivia about plant "intelligence": 1. Venus fly traps detect if an insect is on the trap and close the trap. So far so known, but less people know that th
by fho 5y ago
Some trivia about plant "intelligence":
1. Venus fly traps detect if an insect is on the trap and close the trap. So far so known, but less people know that the trap will open again after a while if there is no movement detected (ie if a stone fell in). Likewise digestion will only start if there is movement detected for a while.
2. Mast years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(botany) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(botany)) ... somehow trees communicate when to produce seeds on mass ... from what I gathered we have no idea how they do that.
- mikro2nd 5y agoIt seems that quite a lot of tree-to-tree networking is done via mycorrhizal networks. Without doubt there are mutually beneficial interactions between plant roots and fungi for extracting nutrients, and quite a lot of good evidence that those networks are informational in nature, too. Whether that's related to seed-dispersal patterns... I have no idea. Alternately, I have also read of trees exuding pheremones via their leaves as a warning to other trees in the vicinity when predators (antelope) come around to munch on the leaves, resulting in surrounding trees rapidly increasing tannin content in their own leaves to make them unpalatable to the browsers. There's a whole lot of shit going on out there that we're scarcely aware of...