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Plants Communicate Using Fungi

Posted by samzenpus on from the shroom-phone dept.

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."

2 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Some day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  2. This topic is relevant to my interests... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.