Secret life of plants: they smell, communicate, sing and are even altruistic!
It may seem absurd, but plants and humans are more similar than we could imagine. Several studies carried out over the last few years have shown that plants possess a series of surprising characteristics and that, in certain respects, some of their "behaviors" they are similar to ours.
Plants are capable of perceiving danger and knowing exactly what to "do" to avoid predators.
Not long ago, a group of scientists discovered that plants can hear, see, smell, and possess the ability to learn, remember, and communicate.
Furthermore, not only do they dislike the noise produced by human activities, but even more surprisingly, plants are also capable of making music and singing!
In short, human and plant biology are much closer than has ever been understood and the analysis of these similarities could have beneficial implications in the study of the biological basis of diseases such as cancer.
The altruism of plants
In an experiment conducted by some researchers at the University of Colorado, it was demonstrated that plants, among their numerous characteristics, are also altruistic. The researchers examined fertilized corn seeds, each of which contained two "siblings" (an embryo and a bit of cellular tissue known as "endosperm," which nourishes the embryo as it grows).
The study compared the growth and behavior of embryos and endosperm of seeds that share the same parents, and the behavior of embryos and endosperm that had the same mother, but genetically different fathers.
The results indicated that the group of embryos with the same parents had a greater quantity of endosperm, compared to the embryos with the same mother, but with a different father.
Apparently, the endosperm is more likely to sacrifice itself for individuals of the same family. One of the fundamental laws of nature is that to be altruistic, you have to give up your closest relatives. Altruism evolves only if the benefactor is a close relative of the beneficiary. When the endosperm gives all its food to the embryo and then dies, it expresses the highest form of altruism.
A similar experiment was published two years ago in the American Journal of Botany, reported in an account on the Biosproject: Earth blog. Guillermo Murphy and Susan Dudley discovered that the Impatiens pallida plant, known by the common name of glass leg, a herbaceous plant of the eastern forests of North America, recognizes its peers and modifies its behavior in relation to the degree of relatedness of the plants it they grow next to him.
Dudley and Murphy selected seeds of Impatiens pallida and planted them in different pots, each of which could accommodate seeds from plants of the same family or from genetically distant plants, then they manipulated the light radiation and its intensity to see if the strategy to capture more light depended on the degree of kinship of nearby individuals.
Different responses from the Impatiens depending on whether the plant was grown with relatives or with foreign plants. To be precise, the two biologists discovered that the "related" plants that were found together in the pots modified their morphology by modeling the growth of the branches so as not to shade the neighboring plants.
An extraordinary phenomenon: the Song of Plants
One of the most fascinating phenomena of plants, and perhaps the most surprising, is their ability to sing and compose music! And listening to their compositions is truly relaxing. Some researchers from the Federation of Damanhur, an ethical-spiritual community located in Vidracco in Piedmont, have been carrying out a series of observations on plants since 1975, in order to understand their unique capabilities.
Using devices they created to record the responsiveness of plants in their natural environment, the researchers discovered that plants are capable of learning and communicating with each other. Applying a simple principle of physics they a variation of the Wheatstone bridge, an electrical circuit used to measure the electrical resistance between the two poles of a bridge circuit.
The device was used to measure the electrical differences between the leaves and roots of the plant. These measurements are then translated into a series of effects, including music, turning on lights, movement and many others.
As the researchers are keen to point out, the plants are not in any danger, as very low intensity currents are used.
According to Damanhur researchers, every living creature, animal or plant, produces a variation in electrical potential, depending on the emotions it experiences.
It seems that plants register the most significant changes when they sense the approach of the person who takes care of them, when they are watered, when they are spoken to and when music is played.
The physiological reaction of the plant is then expressed through electronic equipment designed by the researchers. The most suggestive application was to translate these variations into musical notes.
Experiments have shown that plants seem to really enjoy learning to use musical scales and even producing music on their own, thanks to the use of a synthesizer.
Even if there is no other scientific research conducted on this topic, it cannot be denied that listening to this "vegetal" music is a joy for the soul.
