PLANTS ARE ABLE TO THINK, SEE, REMEMBER TO HAVE SEX
Humanity has long been looking for an answer to the profound question "Are we alone in the Universe?" And probably, due to our cleverness, we will unsuccessfully shout "Ay!" into outer space for the amusement of fellow minds. Who wants to make contact with a civilization that was not able to see under its own nose a different form of intelligence, with the activity of which we encounter almost every day? Who are we talking about? Of course, about plants! Studies by a number of scientists prove that they are conscious. Plants can see, hear, make meaningful choices, and even have sex. That is, they behave in the same way as all living creatures endowed with intelligence.
I ASKED ASH. PLANTS CAN THINK
What can plants think if they don't have a brain? - you ask. And hit the sky with your finger. Because Charles Darwin was the first to speak about the intellectual abilities of plants in his book "Abilities of Movement in Plants." "It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the tip of the root … acts like the brain of some lower animal … it collects impressions from the senses and guides the movements," wrote the great researcher, who is difficult to suspect of a penchant for cheap sensations.
Charles Darwin, English naturalist and traveler.
It turns out that information can be processed not only with the help of a specialized organ - the brain. Plants "think" with the whole organism, a special group of cells, which are located at the tips of stems and roots, are responsible for this. At the tip of a single root, there are only a few hundred cells capable of generating electrical signals. But given that the root system can have millions of processes, the sum is a decent number of "neurons". On the one hand, such a decentralized scheme slows down the thinking process. On the other hand, it gives an incredible advantage: no animal can survive if it loses 90% of its mass. And for a plant, this is not a disaster.
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Plants see a more objective picture of the world than people, says Alexander Volkov, professor at the Department of Chemistry at Oakwood University (USA). They have an analogue of neurons - a special conductive tissue called bast (hence the word "splint") on the inner side of the cortex. Plants analyze more signals from the outside world than humans. If you and I react to heat, light, sound, smell, then plants, in addition to this, feel electric and magnetic fields, gravity, soil composition and inclination, the presence of pathogens (harmful microorganisms) and heavy metals. And if you install a sound source in the 200 Hertz range next to the plant, the root system will immediately turn in this direction. Why? Therefore, this spectrum contains the sound of bubbling water! In total, scientists have counted about 20 parameters,which give plants food for thought and help them decide where to grow next.
By the way, this plant model of development, where there is no single center, is becoming popular in human civilization. In particular, the architecture of the Internet is built on this principle.
ONLY NUMBERS
Plants make up, according to various estimates, from 80 to 97.5% of all biomass on our planet. They are the basis of all life on Earth. Animals and the king of nature are human, just a grain of sand against their background.
GREEN SEX DRIVES INSANE. PLANTS ARE ABLE TO MAKE LOVE
If love is the most sublime feeling that a living being is capable of, then plants are more alive than all living things. In any case, they make themselves fall in love and have real sex.
Scientists have discovered this amazing ability to romance with insects in orchids. Biologists Florian Schistle and Nicholas Werecken of the University of Zurich and the Free University of Brussels have studied seduction technology in great detail. It is known that many plants conclude a kind of contract with insects: we will give you sweet nectar, and you will carry out pollination work for us. However, the Ophys exaltata orchid has come up with a more sophisticated way of manipulating the male bees of the Colletes cunicularius species. The orchid has learned to grow flowers that are unusually similar in appearance to female bees. And in order for the “furry bumblebee” to forget about everything in the world, the plants have learned to synthesize bee pheromones - biological markers that signal that the female is ready to mate.
Orchid Ophys exaltata.
But the special cunning of orchids is that they purposefully slightly modify the chemical formula of the sexual secretion. The fact is that for males, the scent of a bee from a different population is more attractive. Scientists explain this by the fact that bees usually live in a large family and in this case there is a high risk of incest. The flying female is more valuable because it guarantees genetic diversity. And then everything goes according to the knurled pattern: the male sees a beautiful "lady", the first impression is reinforced by the signal scent, and now the insect in love already takes possession of the object of its passion. Does the orchid simulate an orgasm? Does her head hurt? Scientists are not yet reliably aware of this.
And now the question is: who will deny intelligence to orchids who have come up with such an ingenious scheme for cheating the stronger sex?
A bee of the species Colletes cunicularius.
LIANA HAVE VISION AND 3D-PRINTING. Plants are able to mimic
Sight is not exclusive to animals. Plants have this gift too! In 2014, botanists discovered an unusual plant in the forests of Chile - the woody liana Bocuilla Trifoliata. She has an amazing ability to copy the shape of the leaves of the trees on which she lives. She mimics the best known "imitator" of the animal world - the chameleon. If it only changes its color, then the vine actually acts as a living 3D printer. Climbing up tree trunks, Bocuilla manages to grow leaves ten times its own size. Moreover, the plant changes not only the color and shape, but even the arrangement of the veins of its leaves so that they match the pattern of the leaves of the host tree. Throwing shoots on the branches of a neighboring tree,Bocuilla began to grow new leaves to match the "design" of its second owner, and even contrived to grow thorns in itself, if twisted around a thorny plant.
Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso, head of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology at the University of Florence, took up the study of the curiosity.
Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso, head of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology at the University of Florence.
- Liana Bocuilla Trifoliata completely copied even damaged leaves, if there were any on the colonized tree, says Mancuso. - Once in the laboratory we decided to use a support in the form of a Chinese-made plastic plant for the vine. At the same time, they painted it with completely insane colors. Despite this, Bocuilla began to imitate a plastic tree that never existed in nature. These abilities can only be explained by one thing: the vine sees the color and shape that it has to copy.
Liana Bocuilla Trifoliata.
BTW
The largest living organism on the planet is Pando Grove - a colony of aspen poplar. Pando is considered a single living organism, since all 47 thousand trees, spread over an area of 43 hectares, have identical genetic markers and a common root system. The trunks look like separate shoots, but they are actually clones of a single tree. The age of Pando is estimated at 80 thousand years.
ACACIA WON BATTLE AT ANTILOPE. PLANTS ARE ABLE TO SEND SIGNALS TO THE NEIGHBORS AND ANIMALS
The ability of plants to communicate with each other was discovered thanks to a story that happened in South Africa. Zoologist Wouter van Hoven of the University of Pretoria investigated the mass deaths of Kudu antelopes. Local farmers bred them in special pens, but occasionally the animals died for no apparent reason. However, they were not sick or hungry, their bellies were stuffed with acacia leaves. Van Hoven noticed that the giraffes that lived in these places also ate acacias, but in a very strange way: they never lingered near the same tree! Having nibbled the leaves, the giraffes ignored the "treat" on the neighboring acacias and went to the trees that grew 350-400 meters, while the animals always moved against the wind. During the autopsy, the deceased antelopes were found to have an exorbitant level of tannin - this is a poisonous substance,which destroyed the liver of animals. And in giraffes, the level of tannin in organisms was several times lower.
Giraffes do not eat nearby acacia trees and move against the wind from the eaten trees.
The zoologist found that acacias protect themselves from being eaten by increasing tannin levels in the leaves. But how do the trees know when the time has come to feed the leaves with poison? It turns out that the acacia, which took the "blow" first, warns its neighbors about the invasion of "barbarians" in a chemical way: when animals eat leaves, ethanol gas is released. As soon as other trees catch the volatile substance, they perceive it as a distress signal and within 5-10 minutes increase the tannin content in the leaves. Therefore, the giraffes did not eat the neighboring trees and moved against the wind. And the antelopes, imprisoned, were forced to eat all the acacias on the territory of the corral and received lethal doses of poison.
Kudu antelope.
TREES FROM "AVATAR" GROW ON THE EARTH. Plants can sacrifice by themselves
“Through the root system, all the trees in the forests are interconnected to form a kind of Internet analog,” says Suzanne Simar, professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia (Canada). - Through this underground web, they not only talk, but also interact with each other.
Professor Simar studied the structure of Douglas forests. This coniferous tree can reach 100 meters in height and up to 2 meters in diameter. Two of the researcher's experiments deserve special attention.
In one case, scientists created artificial drought conditions for one particular tree - it was unable to absorb moisture from the soil. However, Douglasia lived without water for several years. It turned out that the tree was fed with water and nutrients from a neighbor. They did this through a common root network.
Douglas forest.
“In another case, we damaged the Douglas for an experiment,” says Suzanne. - They plucked the needles from the tree and planted leaf-rolling pests. After a while, the Douglasia sent a lot of carbon through the net to the neighboring tree. And not to her relative Douglas, but to the yellow pine. We interpreted it this way: Douglas realized that she was dying and decided to leave valuable organic substances as a legacy to her friend in order to help the local ecosystem in the end.
After such experiences, the thought comes that the creators of the movie "Avatar" with their thinking forest and the glowing tree Ava turned out to be great seers.
THE POTATO REMEMBERS WHAT YOU DID THIS SUMMER. PLANTS HAVE MEMORY
Memory is an essential feature of intelligence. Plants also have the ability to remember. And it's not just the notches on the tree. A striking example of such superpowers is the Venus flytrap - a predatory plant that feeds on insects. The plant's strange tastes are explained by the fact that it grows on soils poor in nitrogen and replenishes the lack of this vital chemical compound through extraction. The Venus flytrap hunts flies, grasshoppers, beetles and spiders with a two-leaf trap. They give off a tasty bait that attracts insects. When the victim sits on the surface, it touches sensitive hairs. But with one touch, the trap does not work - the fly must hook at least 2 signal sensors within 30 seconds. So the Venus flytrap tries to exclude an accidental fall of rain or wind-driven debris on the leaves. But when the plant predator is convinced that it is dealing with a suitable target, the trap slams shut at an incredible speed for a plant: the capture time is 0.1 seconds.
“During the experiments, we made sure that the Venus flytrap has a so-called electrical memory,” says Professor Alexander Volkov. - In order for the trap to close, the effect of 10 microcoulombs of electricity is required. But it is not necessary to do this in one session. You can first serve 2 microcoulomb, then 5, and so on, until the total is 10 - then the trap will slam shut. But you cannot take long breaks, after 40 seconds the counter is reset to zero. This is an example of how real short-term memory works.
The memory of plants is arranged according to the memristor principle. This is an element in microelectronics that remembers how much current passed through it, and, depending on this experience, changes its electrical resistance. This principle of organizing memory was found in potatoes, mimosa, aloe vera, and a number of flower crops. So try not to quarrel with the plants. What if they are vindictive?
Yaroslav KOROBATOV