Sunday, June 15, 2008

Plants talk to each other?

A long time ago, when I was in graduate school, a friend who was working on his doctorate in weeds--the garden ones, not the ones that are smoked!--had a simple response to my question on how to make sure my houseplants don't die: "keep them together or close by, because they like company" is what he said. Or something to that effect. We laughed.
Now, I wonder if he knew something more than that punchline.
The NY Times reports: "“Plants,” Dr. Dudley said, “have a secret social life.”
Since the research on sea rockets was published in August in Biology Letters, a journal of the United Kingdom’s national academy of science, Dr. Dudley and colleagues have found evidence that three other plant species can also recognize relatives."
Interesting that this botanical communication is also a key aspect of the plot in Shyamalan's latest movie, The Happening. Read this interview with Shyamalan in the Scientific American.

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