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27-05-2018, 05:11 PM
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Six reasons plants are cleverer than you think

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...dio4_sm_mid_c3

In Is Eating Plants Wrong? botanist James Wong discovers that plants are capable of things that used to be thought the preserve of animals, or even humans. He speaks with plant scientists from around the world whose research has led them to conclude that plants can communicate, learn, and even remember. Some even go as far as to say plants are intelligent.

Examples:

4. Plants can play Chinese whispers and remember the message

Plants can communicate through substances they emit through their roots, as well as through fragrances sent out from their leaves. And if potted in a row, sharing roots in each pot, they can play Chinese whispers. They can pass a message from the first root of the first plant down to the last plant in the same row of pots. And they can remember the passed-down message, and act on it when necessary!


6. Plants can sense more than we can
Plants don’t have brains, and yet without brains, and without neurons even, they can do many things that we need brains and sensory organs for.

So without eyes plants can perceive a lot of information about light, without noses they can perceive chemical information like smells, without ears they can perceive the vibrations of sounds. Plants are very perceptive about what’s going on in their environments. They can sense touch, and taste, too, for example they can identify herbivore predators nibbling their leaves from the taste of the herbivore’s saliva.

So plants have the same five senses humans have? “And then some,” says Prof. Rick Karban. Namely plants can also perceive electrical signals, temperature, electromagnetic forces, heavy metals, pathogens, gravity and more.
Let's hope plants never grow legs .....
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28-05-2018, 11:36 AM
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Re: Six reasons plants are cleverer than you think

Triffids - for example!
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28-05-2018, 11:52 AM
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Re: Six reasons plants are cleverer than you think

Omah I heard the programme when it was broadcast and was intrigued to be told that plants 'communicate 'with each other.
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28-05-2018, 12:02 PM
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Re: Six reasons plants are cleverer than you think

Originally Posted by Meg ->
Omah I heard the programme when it was broadcast and was intrigued to be told that plants 'communicate 'with each other.
Sometimes with difficulty (the North/South Divide):

2. Sagebrush shrubs have regional dialects

Professor Rick Karban of the University of California at Davis found that sagebrush shrubs are more effective at communicating with neighbouring plants, than with those growing over two hundred kilometres away. The sagebrush plants use different regional dialects for communication!

In a scientifically rigorous experiment, they found that the southern sagebrush shrubs did not respond to cues from their northern cousins as much as to those from southern plants, and vice versa. The shrubs don’t seem to understand their distant cousins as well as their neighbours. Professor Karban and his team were able to measure and confirm this by using both northern and southern sagebrush clippings in both northern and southern locations, to make sure it’s actually the dialect that’s different, and not the topic of conversation, as it were.
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28-05-2018, 12:09 PM
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Re: Six reasons plants are cleverer than you think

Originally Posted by Silver Tabby ->
Triffids - for example!
As long as there's no meteor shower, we'll see them coming .....
 

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