A Plant That Can Smell

BlueCup writes "The question of how a dodder finds a host plant has puzzled researchers. Many thought it simply grew in a random direction, with discovery of a plant to attack being a chance encounter. But the researchers led by Consuelo M. De Moraes found that if they placed tomato plants near a germinating dodder, the parasite headed for the tomato 80 percent of the time. And when they put scent chemicals from a tomato on rubber, 73 percent of the dodder seedlings headed that way. Turns out, it sniffs out it's prey."

Comments

Is that a whiff of ... creeping apostrophitis?

[ScentCone]

Turns out, it sniffs out it's prey
Yes, but can it sniff out the difference between "it's" (it is) and "its" (the thing that belongs to it)? Come on, now, it's just one stinking paragraph to edit!

That being said, I've often observed, in the jungle-like Maryland suburbs, the seemingly impossible reach and accuracy of certain smothering, viney plants. The twisty, strangling, inescapable spread of warm, fuzzy-looking faux-friendliness - it's amazing. And that's just the PTA members! You should see the Kudzu!