Plants can talk to each other
Trees are truly amazing plants. They can live for hundreds of years and grow until some are hundreds of feet tall. Trees provide us with one of our most important needs in life and without it, we wouldn’t be able to exist, oxygen. I learned in fact that there is underground network that allows plants and trees to share information and provide each other with help. It allows individual plants that may be far apart to “talk” with one another and share nutrients. This plant wide network is brought about due to the presence of fungi or more specifically one fungus called mycelium which creates thin threads that act as underground internet of sorts for plants.
In this article, it details how this fungus is able to link the roots of different plants together in such a way that a tree could be linked to a sunflower a couple feet away. This network is the hub for information and nutrient exchange. This is similar to what was represented in the James Cameron movie, Avatar, in which all the animals and plants of the world were connected and could communicate with each other. For instance, the article mentions how Douglas fir and paper birch trees are able to transfer carbon via this underground mycelium network. Furthermore, it goes on to say how many young trees would not be able to survive without the help of older trees providing nutrients and information through the mycelium. The article even goes on to say how the plants are able to communicate with each other with chemical signals through via the mycelium network in order to possibly warn other plants of threats. One example was shown how tomato plants that were part of this network were grown next to each other. One was infected by a disease and after a certain amount of time the other plant was exposed to the same disease. However, it was shown that the second plant was less likely to get the disease and attained less damage from the disease. There exists an entire natural network right below our feet that is full of complex and intricate pathways that connect plants which would be considered the nodes for the pathways. The sharing of information, chemicals and nutrients would be paths between the plants going in all directions. Next time you’re in the forest or laying on the grass, remember the plants are talking with each other around you.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet
