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Plants 'can recognise themselves'

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posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 02:44 PM
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Plants may be able to recognise themselves.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f5845988b022.jpg[/atsimg]

Experiments show that a sagebrush plant can recognise a genetically identical cutting growing nearby.

What's more, the two clones communicate and cooperate with one another, to avoid being eaten by herbivores.

The findings, published in Ecology Letters, raise the tantalising possibility that plants, just like animals, often prefer to help their relatives over unrelated individuals.

The ability to distinguish self from non-self is a vital one in nature.

It allows many animals to act preferentially towards others that are genetically related to themselves; for example, a female lion raising her young, or protecting other more distantly related cubs in her pride.

But the evidence that plants can do the same is limited and controversial.
It implies that plants are capable of more sophisticated behaviour than we imagined.


"It implies that plants are capable of more sophisticated behaviour than we imagined."
Biologist Richard Karban


Biologist Richard Karban:
Some experiments have shown that if a plant's roots grow near to those of another unrelated plant, the two will try to compete for nutrients and water. But if a root grows close to another from the same parent plant, the two do not try to compete with one another.

However, in these experiments, when two cuttings of the same plant are then grown alongside each other, their roots still compete for resources. That infers that two separate plants cannot recognise that they are genetic kin.

Now research by Richard Karban of the University of California, in Davis, US and Kaori Shiojiri of Kyoto University in Otsu, Japan has revealed that some plants are capable of doing just that.

news.bbc.co.uk...


[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 02:53 PM
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reply to post by karl 12
 


That is a stunningly awesome report. Plants are responsive and aware. It feels good just to be around them. I admire them and love them all from blade of grass to tallest tree. Some kid whacked at a sapling out front with a machete last spring. When I saw the marks I cried a little and gave the tree a hug, promising to protect it in the future. This year, its the biggest and most beautiful of the saplings in the entire development.

All of my plants are thriving because I love them, care for them and pay attention to them. The neighbors plants/veggies/flowers/trees/shrubs all struggle to keep up even though we share identical conditions.



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 02:57 PM
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Great find.

This just goes to show, plants are more "living" then we thought.

What's next, are we going to find that they have mating rituals too? lol



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 03:07 PM
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Oddly enough, when I was a kid, I would sometimes imagine that vegetables were screaming in pain when we ate them raw, especially carrots & tomatoes for some reason. Maybe it was just an excuse for me not to eat vegetables.

Steak tartare anyone?

[edit on 1-6-2009 by postmeme]



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 03:07 PM
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reply to post by karl 12
 


Fascinating report Karl! From your link:

They took cuttings of Artemisia tridentata, a species of sagebrush that does not normally reproduce by cloning itself.

They placed each cutting either near its genetic parent, essentially its clone, or near an unrelated sagebrush, and let the plants grow in the wild in the University of California Sagehen Creek Natural Reserve. The researchers clipped each clone they planted, feigning damage that might be caused by natural herbivores such as grasshoppers.

After one year, they found that plants growing alongside their damaged clones suffered 42% less herbivore damage than those growing alongside damaged plants that were unrelated.

Somehow, the clipped plants appeared to be warning their genetically identical neighbours that an attack was imminent, and the neighbour should somehow try to protect itself. But clipped plants didn't warn unrelated neighbours.

Karban says he was "pretty surprised" at the results. "It implies that plants are capable of more sophisticated behaviour than we imagined."


That explains how the awful weed here -- cockspur -- manages to always replicate itself next to another awful weed - brown girl. The cockspur, a opposing-barbed vine, seems to "like" climbing up inside the bushy undergrowth of brown girl, and by the time it emerges into view, it is a healthy and hard to eradicate vine. It wraps itself so thoroughly around the brown girl tree that one almost always has to get rid of them both. Brown girl (I don't know why it's called that -- a local term) sends down an enormous taproot which radiates outward -- By the time it's trunk is no more than 1/2" in diameter, most strong humans can't pull it up with both arms and legs working. It's a real symbiotic relationship, as the sharp and sticking cockspur then seems to deter anyone from attacking the brown girl.

I have to slash them both, then use a handyman jack and a homemade choker cable to jack the brown girl out of the ground.



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 03:11 PM
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Plants recognize themselves?

Shoot, what are we gonna eat when we figure out that plants are alive and reactionary like animals?



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 03:18 PM
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The other day I saw the episode of Mythbusters where they hook plants up to I think those lie detector things or maybe it was a seismograph or something and then from a different room somebody has to direct thoughts at the plant and then they look for a response. They actually found something I think; plants 'responded' on the charts about 30% of the time. A study done by the US government a while back found the same thing but the program was canned because I think it was during war time or something and they needed the funds elsewhere. So it has been said anyhow.

I tried to find the episode of Mythbusters online with no luck, but I'll keep an eye out for it...it was kinda fun to see....
If anyone else has it / knows links, please post!



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 03:19 PM
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Plants are intelligent. I've written about it before somewhere. They seek light and nutrients, they are able to do all sorts of things. Honestly plants are right up there with sponges, which are animals. Sponges are treated just like octopi in terms of legal issues (invertebrates) and octopi are super intelligent.



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 03:39 PM
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reply to post by phoebeflakes
 


There was a mythbusters episode where they played different types of music to different plants, they grew best listening to death metal!
phoebeflakes; It is probably the episode you refer too as well.




And to postmeme.
Eaten raw, imagine their terror being cooked, or boiled?


[edit on 1-6-2009 by Toadmund]

[edit on 1-6-2009 by Toadmund]

[edit on 1-6-2009 by Toadmund]



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 03:52 PM
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Originally posted by NWOhereNOW
Shoot, what are we gonna eat when we figure out that plants are alive and reactionary like animals?

I would like to suggest soylent green. By eating lots of soylent green, you will be helping to reduce global overpopulation and reducing CO2 and other negative humon impact upon the planet.

This is an interesting article, but because plants react in this way does not imply they have a brain and thoughts and can recognize itself and other plants, all this may simply be a cellular reaction.



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 04:45 PM
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Originally posted by Divinorumus

Originally posted by NWOhereNOW
Shoot, what are we gonna eat when we figure out that plants are alive and reactionary like animals?

I would like to suggest soylent green. By eating lots of soylent green, you will be helping to reduce global overpopulation and reducing CO2 and other negative humon impact upon the planet.

This is an interesting article, but because plants react in this way does not imply they have a brain and thoughts and can recognize itself and other plants, all this may simply be a cellular reaction.


Great idea but why not cut out the middleman (ha ha!) and go straight for cannibalism?



posted on Jun, 1 2009 @ 05:10 PM
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reply to post by Toadmund
 




Whichever one it was, I didn't watch the whole thing and didn't see any part that had anything to do with music, but it may have been in the same one....'twould make sense...



posted on Jun, 4 2009 @ 09:06 AM
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reply to post by argentus
 


Thanks for the replies


Argentus -that was a very interesting read



posted on Aug, 20 2009 @ 11:50 AM
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Originally posted by breakingdradles
What's next, are we going to find that they have mating rituals too? lol


This newly discovered one from Asia likes eating rats
Yummy



The carnivorous plant (nepenthes attenboroughii) was found by researchers atop Mt. Victoria, a remote mountain in Palawan, Philippines. The research team, led by Stewart McPherson of Red Fern Natural History Productions, had learned of the plant in 2000 after a group of Christian missionaries stumbled upon it while trekking up a remote mountain and reported it to a local newspaper.
The discovery, announced last week, was detailed in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

The pitcher plant is the world's second largest and can grow to more than 4 feet tall, with a pitcher-shaped structure filled with liquid. The plant secretes nectar around its mouth to lure rats, insects and other prey into its trap. Once an animal has fallen in, enzymes and acids in the fluid break down the carcass of the drowned victim


news.yahoo.com...



posted on Sep, 29 2009 @ 11:50 AM
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1970's documentary on sentience in plants - some of which is quite interesting


Published in 1973, The Secret Life of Plants was written by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. It is described as “A fascinating account of the physical, emotional, and spiritual relations between plants and man.” Essentially, the subject of the book is the idea that plants may be sentient, despite their lack of a nervous system and a brain.


Link:
topdocumentaryfilms.com...

Cheers.




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