Considering himself the crown of creation, man believes that he is the smartest creature on earth. At the same time, he admits that animals (especially pets) also have some intelligence, but completely denies it to plants. It is customary to say about people who have lost their minds that they lead a vegetable lifestyle. Does the word "vegetable" remind you of anything? In fact, our ideas and judgments about plants are absurd and extremely primitive.
The famous medieval physician Paracelsus wrote in his Occult Botany that every plant has a mind and even a soul. The ancient sages knew this too. For some reason, we believe that plants are incapable of feeling, they cannot suffer - they just undergo certain chemical reactions. And besides, why worry, worry if you can neither run nor defend from danger?..
Research by modern scientists refutes this opinion. First, there was evidence that plants feel pain when they are hurt, and emit "screams", which are perceived by their green fellow neighbors and recorded by galvanometers. It was also found that plants, like humans, suffer from thirst and hunger, that they have a kind of immune system and structures similar to nerve fibers. Finally, the plants exchange information with each other.
In 1926. Indian scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose found that plants respond to irritation with electrical impulses. For a long time, this fact was practically ignored, but now scientists have found that electrical signals are processed in cell membranes, and thanks to this, plants are sensitive to changes in the external environment and respond to them, changing the flowering time, the number and rate of leaf growth. Modern chemical devices have shown that fragrances replace words or sounds for plants, saving them from death, as we do a call for help. This "language of aromas" is understood not only by plants, but also by the predatory "brotherhood" of insects crawling and flying around them.
According to the American researcher Eric Davis, when plants are attacked by pests, it becomes known to all their relatives. It turns out that the plant world is also full of cunning and struggle: it reacts to many external stimuli, mobilizing all forces, calls on the necessary allies for help, disguises itself and invents insidious traps. He even imagines what awaits him, and tries to avoid trouble - in fact, change his own destiny. Sometimes the behavior of plants is so "thoughtful" and complex that a thought arises: do they have real intelligence?..
Plants are great cunning
A scientist from the Netherlands, Marcel Dicke, drew attention to the amazing ability of many plants to call on defenders to help them. So, when attacked by spider mites, the well-known cucumber releases terpenoids on its leaves - special aromatic substances. Insects-predators gather on this smell - "bodyguards" of cucumbers, destroying their enemies.
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Some plants act ahead of the enemy, preparing to meet him fully armed, and for this purpose they produce methyl jasmonate (jasmonic acid). Caterpillars are just crawling, and predators, warned by plants, are already on the alert. It is interesting that when the researchers inflicted mechanical damage on the plants (scratching, stabbing and cutting), they suffered without emitting substances that attract protective insects. From this it follows that the plants are aware of the nature of the damage, that is, they distinguish the caterpillar gnawing them from the action of a needle or knife.
Another example. A moth laid eggs on the leaves of an elm tree. The tree did not wait for the voracious caterpillars to crawl out of these eggs, and summoned defenders. No sooner had the harmful larvae grown up than the elm “bodyguards” who had arrived at the call. But what a trick is the passion flower growing in America: it protects itself with special growths, reminiscent of insect eggs. A butterfly that flies to a passion flower sees that someone has laid eggs here before her, and goes home so as not to leave offspring doomed to death. The fact is that the caterpillars that appeared earlier eat those that hatched later. This is how this extraordinary flower deceives its enemies.
Even our distant ancestors knew that plants cultivated by man subtly react to his attitude towards them. It is no secret that for some people all cultures develop and bear fruit much better than others, and this cannot be explained only by conditions and care. For example, the Californian gardener Luther Burbank managed to develop a new species of cacti devoid of thorns - for this a man simply talked with plants and created a "vibration of love." In the same way, a white transparent mulberry was bred.
If we return to the struggle of wild plants with pests, then a person should learn its methods. Having studied and in practice applied the commands that give our green friends to predatory insects, we will be able to defeat phyto-pests. There will be no need to pollinate gardens and garden beds with pesticides, polluting the land and disrupting the ecology of the environment. If cultivated plants learn what their wild "relatives" do - to defend themselves independently, including "shouting" to attract defenders, - a new era of agriculture will begin. Without wild plants for their wonderful abilities, our planet would become deserted and bare. Her green outfit testifies to the undoubted intelligence of plants, which could tell a lot to a person if he learned to listen and understand them …