Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: ashley on September 06, 2021, 12:57:47 PM
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To my surprise we have no thread on plant 'communication' ;) but here (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210831-the-people-who-believe-plants-can-talk?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB)'s an interesting article on the BBC website.
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It is interesting Ashley. Having read the article it seems that the experts differ in their interpretation of "talking" rather than any form of communication. It was said on a TV programme that trees under attack from some source could communicate with nearby trees so that they could build a defence against the attack. We think we know all about wildlife but there is still much to learn.
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Agreed Ian. The same thought often crosses my mind for example when looking at a frame of bees and all that's going on. There's so much even about basic processes in nature that we don't yet understand.
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It reminds me of a question I once asked but could not get an answer to. How do bee orchids know what a bee looks like?
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Ian
The short answer is that the orchid could care less. An orchid evolved that just happened to look like a bee and it was more successful in getting pollinated so it passed along it's genes. The ones that evolved and didn't look like a bee were not successful and disappeared.
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yep, in each generation the orchid varyies some of the features which attract the bee. The ones that prove successful reproduce better than the rest.
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The concept is fascinating. Perhaps we will be reminded of the importance of non-verbal communication in human interaction; whether or not plants communicate..