Aug
30
plants call herbivores’ predators
Tagged Under : ecology, insects, plants
Plants are amazing. I said this to a friend yesterday and he corrected me: “Everything is amazing.” Which is true. Kidneys? Amazing. Meteorites? Amazing. DNA? Amazing.
But, for now, let’s talk about plants. They’re amazing. They can communicate by releasing chemicals. Messages like, “Come eat the tasty caterpillars!”
For ScienceNOW last week, I wrote about a study on tobacco plants that, when they’re being chomped by caterpillars, send out a chemical message that calls the caterpillars’ predators. Amazing, huh? Read about it here.
photo: Matthey Film