Plants Communicate Using Fungi

Shipud writes "In response to aphid attacks, some plants produce chemicals that repel the aphids and attract wasps, the aphids' natural enemies. Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have shown that plants attacked by aphids can communicate that information to neighboring plants via existing networks of fungi in the soil. Thus fungal symbiosis with plants is shown to be taken one step further: not only do they provide nutrients to plants, they also function as communication hardware."

Comments

Some day...

[Anonymous Coward]

The vegetarians will be slaughtered for their terrible crimes aginst plantkind.

Re:Some day...

[Immerman]

Not at all. Fruit is in many (most?) cases an evolutionary "bargain" - the fruit provides a calorie-rich meal for an animal, while the animal then transports the seeds and deposits them in a pile of fertilizer at a distance much. Not all the seeds survive the process, but enough to be a viable way for the plant to spread. Just one of many examples of how plants harness animals to do their bidding.

Besides which vegetables are typically harvested from the adult plant, it's only fruits, nuts, and grains that include seeds.

This topic is relevant to my interests...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Anybody else overcome by Alpha Centauri nostaliga at the notion of large, initially hidden, fungus-based communications networks?

Also, given that we've discovered several enormous fungi (I think the largest known spreads across some 2,200 acres), I wonder if this sort of thing is actually much more common than we currently know. Ping would probably suck; but there is a lot of (fungal) fiber in the ground.

Re:Fungi = planet brain?

[SpaceManFlip]

This, I think is the secret of fungi. The structures of mushrooms more closely resemble the brain of mammals than almost anything.

It's a trippy concept to think of weird plant brains living under the soil everywhere, and popping up brain pods / mushrooms in random places from their mycelium.

Then when you think about the ones that contain chemicals that allow mammals to have transcendent spiritual experiences, it makes you think about the Plant Brain / Planet Brain thing on a deeper level.

Re:Fungi = planet brain?

[Ellis D. Tripp]

Mushrooms aren't "brain pods", they are the reproductive organs, releasing spores into the soil and air.

Not that fungal genitalia popping up everywhere is any less freaky if you think about it...

Documentary Video On This Topic

[Freshly Exhumed]

Watch Dr. David Suzuki's "The Nature Of Things" episode called "Smarty Plants: Uncovering the Secret World of Plant Behaviour":

http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/smarty-plants-uncovering-the-secret-world-of-plant-behaviour.html