Today I found an interesting article about how plans can recognize plants that are besides them. Based on a new study, it has come to a conclusion that they use chemical signals that come from the roots of each plant. Say, that a plant's sibling was planted besides them. The plant would not compete with it for space and vitamins, however if the plant were unknown to the our plant, it would not play fair with it and compete for area and vitamins. The evidence that shows this? The fact that the roots of a plant are spread out even more when it's next to a stranger rather than it's sibling. Another piece of evidence, its how plants grow above the ground. If the two plants are siblings, they will grow together and intertwine. But if they are not siblings, both of them will grow away from each other, or straight, not together at all. It's some what like how humans are for example you wouldn't go hug a stranger would you? In the same way the two stanger plants do not grow together. It's the same with their root's growth. If we were competing against some one we didn't know, we couldn't care less about the person and would try to get ahead of them. If it was, however someone you knew you wouldn't compete so hard, and wouldn't want to hurt them.I personally think this is pretty cool. I never really expected plants to sense anything, they seemed to be just a growing thing that was beautiful and created oxygen, but with no ability other than that. If they can recognize things, they must be smarter than we believe them to be. Hopefully, we may find further advances on this topic.
~Swimmer/writer girl
