Plants 'Talk' To Each Other

Plants 'Talk' To Each Other Using Nanoscale Sound Waves To Help Them Grow, Study Suggests



Chili pepper plants, Capsicum annuum, communicate with basil plants via sound waves



By Andrew Porterfield

The word in the garden is that basil is good to have around.
Plants are known to communicate with each other via shade, aromatic
chemicals, and physical touch, promoting processes such as growth and
defense against disease, as well as attraction of bees and other
pollinators.
Now, online today in BMC Ecology, researchers report a new type of mechanism that some plants use to communicate. The team planted common chili pepper seeds (Capsicum annuum, pictured) near a basil plant, with barriers that prevented the basil from deploying its usual growth-promoting tricks.
Despite
the separation, chili seeds germinated faster when basil was a
neighbor, suggesting that a message was getting through. Because light,
touch, and chemical "smell" were ruled out, the team proposes that the
finding points to a new type of communication between plants, possibly
involving nanoscale sound waves, traveling through the dirt to bring
encouraging "words" to the growing seeds.
Understanding this novel communication could help growers boost crop yields and increase global food supplies. How neighborly.

Source:-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/plants-talk-to-each-other-nanoscale-sound-waves-grow_n_3229021.html