We often think of plants as nothing more than beautiful parts of a landscape - they don't make sounds and hardly move. However, plants manage to interact with the world without eyes, ears or brains. They experience emotions, albeit different from human ones. It's not easy to figure this out right off the bat, but don't worry - even scientists have taken decades to do this.
MUSICAL PAUSE
In the second half of the 20th century, experiments in which musical compositions were put on various plants were widely covered. If you look for articles on this topic, mostly loud headlines will come out in the spirit of "plants love classics, and rock and roll kills them." With the background, of course, that rock and roll kills not only plants, but also the immature brains of young people. Some of these studies generally talk about the wonders of musical impact. Allegedly in 1979, a technique was developed to stimulate plant growth to musical signals, which allows tripling the harvest of tomatoes and papaya, as well as getting wheat stuffed with vitamins. Whoa! Why don't all the leading farmers of the planet still buy magic cassettes in boxes ?! Well, or not downloaded from the Internet, if we talk about our days. Yes, becausethat with almost all the experiments carried out there was a snag, the name of which was "verification in other conditions."
Either the plants like music, then they don’t, then they are drawn to Bach and move away from Led Zeppeling, then vice versa, and for some reason they even spat on jazz and country from the big bell tower. Hundreds of experiments, thousands of tests, and almost everywhere - different results. Yes, plants are definitely capable of "hearing", perceiving air vibrations created by sound waves, but their preferences are purely individual and not tied to genres in any way. More concrete results appeared only relatively recently, when scientists decided to include not an abstract (from the point of view of a plant) Beethoven, but a very specific, very creepy sound - the sound of chewing caterpillars.
CHEMICAL STICK AGAINST TRACKS
Imagine that you suddenly hear the roar of a hungry tiger or a piercing wolf howl under your ear. The first reaction is to run or grab the nearest stick in order to sell your life at a higher price! But since the first option is not available to the plants, they unanimously choose the second - and cover their leaves with chemical protection against a virtual enemy. And it's not just about sound - some types of trees, for example, canadian goldenrod, recognize their pests by smell. And tomatoes, already bitten by voracious moth larvae, themselves emit a warning smell so that the neighbors have time to prepare to repel the attack. In another experiment, the parasitic dodder bindweed showed that it was able to "sniff out" the most suitable prey among the same tomatoes, before twisting around it and starting to draw out juices. The most curious defense system was found in one of the types of corn - upon hearing caterpillars chewing, the plant emits substances that attract wasps that feed on these same caterpillars! Who needs poison when there are reliable allies?
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The perception of sound waves in plants concerns not only defense or attack, but also the search for food. In one of the recent studies by Australian biologists, it was proved that seed peas are perfectly oriented to the sound of running water. Plants were given a choice of two sound sources - the murmur of water and white noise, and then deprived of regular watering. The result was always the same - the pea root system grew steadily in the direction of the murmur, despite the fact that there was no real water there. A huge disappointment for the peas, but a win for the biologists. After the experiment, they watered their ward, of course. As a reward.
ARITHMETICS FOR THE MOST PREDICTED
We believe that the inability of plants to budge is a huge disadvantage, although in fact it has certain advantages. It's simple - if you are doomed to spend your life standing in one place, willy-nilly you will have to learn to survive and perceive the world around you from such a state. For example, rezukhovidki - a genus of herbaceous plants in the cabbage family - can boast as many as eleven photoreceptors when humans have only four. This means that in terms of tracking light, their "vision" is much more complicated than ours, because light for a rescuer is not just a signal, it is food and life.
We know how trees compete for territory and sunshine, but there are far less known cases of their cooperation. And they cooperate - be healthy! Root systems, intertwining with each other, allow trees to share useful substances with a neighbor in times of need - sometimes just in those cases when the more lush crown of one does not allow the other to grow properly. In mixed forests, coniferous trees "feed" deciduous companions in winter, and they, in turn, do the same in summer. You can also transmit danger signals along the roots, although this does not happen instantly.
Plants are even capable of a kind of account - however, mostly predators, like the Venus flytrap. When an insect lands on a flycatcher leaf, it folds up, covering the prey with hairs or thorns, and then digests it. But such "body movements" for a plant require monstrous efforts, and arithmetic comes to the aid of the flycatcher. If the touch of the leaf is too light, there is no reaction at all - you never know, the wind brought some blade of grass. Also, the plant does not respond at the first "serious" touch to avoid mistakes. Finally, if a second touch occurs, the trap begins to roll up, after the next - to release digestive enzymes. Some plants even flaunt the ability to remember events! Shy mimosa leaves curl up when touched as a defensive reaction. But if you drop it to the ground from a low height several times without harm, the plant stops responding. And he remembers this for weeks.
POLYGRAPH FAILURE
No less widely than experiments with music, at one time they covered the tests of dracaena on a polygraph from Cleve Baxter. Connecting sensors to plants, he investigated all kinds of reactions - to the death of animals and other plants, the infliction of pain, and even basic human emotions. And each time the polygraph recorded the data. Baxter stated this as a real breakthrough - plants not only respond to pain and death, but are also able to capture people's thoughts! But then again, faced with double-check, Baxter's experiments were deemed completely unscientific. The polygraph itself is an extremely dubious device for obtaining readings even in humans, and weak electrical signals from plants that do not have a nervous system cannot be recorded with the declared accuracy. We've already figured outthat plants can respond to specific challenges such as pests or the search for water and light, but they have absolutely no need to read people's emotions. In no case should dracaena be held for fools, but you shouldn't attribute a consciousness similar to a human one either.
Of course, it is very pleasant to think that if you play classical music on a room flower or talk to him, he will be pleased, but, alas, this is self-deception. Here is regular care, watering and feeding - what the plant will really appreciate and thank - with oxygen, fruits, flowers, or simply with its healthy, eye-pleasing appearance.
Sergey Evtushenko
