PLAANTS BEHAVE LIKE HUMANS : DON BURKE

Plants are not unlike humans. They can talk each other and even call in
reinforcements when they are going to get tough.
Who says so? Australian gardener Don Burke and Australian National
University chemistry Professor Ben Selinger, in reviewing research on plants over
the past 10 years, have come to the conclusion that many plants have human
qualities. They say plants can communicate with each other by using a range of
chemical signals.
If a plant muncher such as a caterpillar or even a koala starts chewing on
a plant, the plant will start sending chemicals to its leaves in an effort to repel
the chewer, Mr. Burke said. Nearby plants will also start emitting these same
chemicals, anticipating that theyll also be attacked.
Mr. Burke, who writes about the phenomena in an upcoming issue of his
gardening magazine, also said plants can release chemicals which attract certain
insects to protect them.
So essentially they call in the cavalry, they call in good insects to attack
the ones that are attacking them, he said. Scientists had now identified the
genes responsible for the action and were trying to combine it with other plants,
Mr. Burke said. The breakthrough, published in the journal Science last year,
suggested gardeners and farmers may not have to use pesticides any more, he
said. It has huge implications for the world,. In years ahead, instead of pouring
vast amounts of toxic chemicals all over the world and therefore ourselves in one
form or another, we should be able to add these genes, which are naturally
occurring genes in plants, to other plants, so that they can repel insects
themselves. Mr. Burke said plants also used a lot of other human qualities.
Venus Fly Traps or sensitive plants can move, pitchers plants can eat animals,
peaches, and cherry for instance can count the number of cold days each year
before they produce their leaves in spring, he said.
Prof. Selinger described the overall picture of the research that had been
done as astounding.
Plants have always been sort of relegated as primitive compard to
animals and its just not true, he said. But there is little research in the area. We
are such an agricultural country .... I think more research could be conducted.