Most people think that plants cannot escape from danger, so they immediately surrender their enemies; however, studies have revealed that the situation is not at all as it was thought. On the contrary, plants defend themselves against their enemies with surprising tactics and using a secret language among themselves.

The easiest way to communicate is to talk. By speaking, people express their wishes, thoughts, joy, happiness, in short, all their feelings and thoughts. Animals, like humans, can communicate easily among themselves, with the sounds they make, they announce to each other, for example, the moment of danger, the approach of prey, and the need to gather. Even fish, the quietest member of the animal kingdom, communicate with each other using their body language and ability to move.

So, how do plants, known as the silent members of the living world, and whose ability to move is extremely limited, communicate? Do plants talk? The answer most people would give to this question would be no. However, scientific research has shown that plants actually use a secret language in their seemingly silent world.

Plants communicate with the living things around them through 'volatile organic compounds' called odors that cannot be perceived. They can produce thousands of different organic compounds in their metabolism. Many of these compounds surround the plants like a cloud. In fact, these volatile organic compounds show that plants have an extremely complex structure to produce them. These volatile organic compounds, which we perceive only as an odor that we like, and sometimes do not feel at all, have a guiding feature for the living things around. That's because the plant secretes these compounds to deter or lure its enemies. A thousand different compounds have been identified so far, and there are probably many still undiscovered. Research shows that there are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of primary and secondary volatile organic chemicals with various properties and functions produced by plants.

Aromatic compounds produced by plants are formed as a result of extremely complex chemical processes. Like a laboratory working on organic chemistry, plants perform chemical processes such as methylation (methylation), acylation, oxidation/reduction step by step, with great precision, using enzymes. Also within this mechanism are cells that store the produced compounds and organize their release into the air as volatile gases when the time comes. In short, the combination of compounds that make up the scents we like, such as rose, requires an extraordinary technical organization.

When plants are attacked by living things that will harm them, they warn other plants, which are next to them, with the volatile organic compounds they secrete. In fact, this awakening process is in the form of the plant, which is attacked by other plants, eavesdropping on volatile organic compounds in the plateau. Thus, they activate their defense systems before being attacked.

The volatile organic compounds released by the attacking plants are copied by the neighboring plants and the defense system is activated by analyzing the successive signals. Here another truth emerges: Plants not only talk to each other, but also listen to each other. As a matter of fact, the experiments carried out by the experts have shown that the plants that have been made deaf to the aforementioned signals through certain processes have a higher risk of being exposed to danger.

 

Source: Lüzumsuz Bilgiler 1