Communicating is one of humanity’s greatest abilities, allowing us to teach and pass on information or warn one another of danger. And while other creatures can also communicate in similar ways, we often think of plants as sort of passive organisms, but new evidence suggests that’s not the case.
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00:00Verbal communication is one of humanity's greatest abilities, allowing us to teach and
00:08pass on information, or warn one another of danger.
00:11And while other creatures can also communicate in similar ways, we often think of plants
00:15as sort of passive organisms, but new evidence suggests that's not the case.
00:19We have long known that plants can communicate with chemical signals, in fact, Sven Bott
00:23writes for The Conversation, that's what's happening when you smell freshly cut grass,
00:27explaining, the volatiles or chemical substances released by the grass plants, which we associate
00:32with that smell, are one way they communicate, the nearby plants that a predator, or in this
00:36case a lawnmower, is present, prompting an adjustment in plant defenses.
00:41However, new research suggests that plants are also talking to one another via electrophysiology.
00:46Scientists have begun inserting electrical probes into plants, in greenhouses, both reading
00:51what plants are communicating outwardly, and also influencing their behaviors by sending
00:55electrical signals to them.
00:56In one experiment, they were even able to get a Venus flytrap to open and close its
01:00mouth like leaves.
01:02Decoding this plant language could let us better understand our crops, though experts
01:05also say there is a massive underground plant communication system, sometimes referred to
01:10as the wood wide web, believed to connect some 80% of all plants and fungi.