Hey Vegan, Do Plants Know They Are Being Eaten ?

Vegetarians and vegans pay heed: New research shows plants know when they’re being eaten. And they don’t like it.

That plants possess an intelligence is not new knowledge, but according to Modern Farmer, a new study from the University of Missouri shows plants can sense when they are being eaten and send out defense mechanisms to try to stop it from happening.

The study was carried out on thale cress, or Arabidopsis as it’s known scientifically, which is closely related to broccoli, kale, mustard greens, and other siblings of the brassica family and is popular for science experiments. It is commonly used in experiments because it was the first plant to have its genome sequenced, and scientists are intimately familiar with how it works.

The researchers controlled the experiment by coming up with other vibrations that simulated other natural vibrations like wind noise that the plant might encounter.

The results? According to Modern Farmer, the thale cress produces mustard oils that are mildly toxic when eaten and sends them throughout its leaves to try to keep the predators away. The research also revealed that when the plants felt or heard “munching vibrations” from the caterpillar, they sent out extra mustard oils. But the plants didn’t react when other vibrations were present.

“Previous research has investigated how plants respond to acoustic energy, including music,” said Heidi Appel, senior research scientist in the Division of Plant Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and the Bond Life Sciences Center at MU.

“However, our work is the first example of how plants respond to an ecologically relevant vibration. We found that feeding vibrations signal changes in the plant cells’ metabolism, creating more defensive chemicals that can repel attacks from caterpillars.”

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4 Comments:
May 22, 2019

So plants taste better when they are not being chomped on ? :good:

December 7, 2019

By the sounds of it i think are what cause the bad tasting chems to be released

Brand W
June 21, 2019

Every Vegan that i know has a physique that i would consider desirable did not get it with vegan diet

October 19, 2020

Asking questions are truly pleasant thing if you are not understanding something entirely, except this post gives pleasant understanding yet.

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