Introduction

When one talks of communication, the first thing that comes to mind is words spoken, body language, or even texting. What though the green, rooted ones about us, plants have been speaking in silence hitherto? Recent studies in botany and plant neurobiology have found plants to be not as inert as they would appear. They produce warnings, exchange nutrients and even listen into conversations.

So, it is time to take a closer look at the world of plant communication, which has science to support it.

Does a plant have a nervous system?

Plants lack brains and nerves, but they do have sophisticated signalling mechanisms that enact a partial copy of animal communications. It has been found by scientists that:

• The electrical signals that help plants have a similar effect to nerve impulses.
• These messages are transmitted by the vascular system in the plant as a warning to other regions in the plant of a threat (such as insect attacks).
• In the year 2005, scientists noted that plants use the calcium waves similarly to those of the neurons to respond to sounds and light stimuli when they are touched.

This has given rise to the experimental area of plant neurobiology. Although this is quite controversial, it does create new potential methods of comprehending plant behaviour.

The Language Of the Plants: How Plants Communicate

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are tiny airborne chemicals that are released and are usually used by plants as a means of communicating with each other in response to stimuli in the environment. These are chemicals that can:

• Sound an alarm when there are pests or herbivores around the plants.
• Lure to consume insect pests, such as aphids, using their friendly counterparts, such as ladybugs.
• Summon the signalers by odours.

Such as when caterpillars attack a willow tree, the willow will give off VOCs, which the other willows receive. In reaction to this, the surrounding trees start to develop chemicals in their leaves to make them not taste so good-even before they are being attacked. It is a kind of warning communication among plants.

Wood Wide Web: Underground Networks

A revolutionary finding in the 1990s showed something incredible: what happens underground, trees and plants appear linked together by totally unexpected fungal networks called mycorrhizal networks.

This system is also called the Wood Wide Web because it:

• Connects trees and plants as threads known as hyphae.
• Nourishment interchange, warning and even assistance to infirm neighbours.
• Allows older so-called mother trees to feed their offspring by exchanging sugars and other food supplies.

A 2016 paper published in Nature showed Douglas fir trees were sensing the distress of other nearby trees and then supplying them with carbon to help them through such fungal connections.

Mimicry and Eavesdropping

It is not just signals that plants send; they also pay attention. Others can listen to what their neighbours already have to say in terms of their chemical alerts, and then prepare themselves.

To illustrate, wild tobacco plants have the capacity to detect the volatile organic compounds of nearby damaged sagebrush caused by insects, and begin synthesis of their defence enzymes.

Some orchids resemble the odours of distressed plants or wounded insects, which attract the pollinators such as wasps and flies.

Such an action indicates some degree of environmental attitude and responsiveness to the environment that was thought to be restricted to animals alone by scientists.

Beyond The Danger Of Communication

Communication is also used by the plants in more ordinary communications:

• Light sensing: Plants can pick up cues on the overcrowding of an area by sensing the amount of light reflected by the neighbours. This assists them in ascertaining the manner of expansion.
• Dermal responses: Mimosa pudica, the so-called touch-me-not, folds its leaves when touched. This is not arbitrary, but a controlled electrical signal, which is a controlled electrical and chemical signal.
• Seasonal signals: Trees converse with each other internally and communicate how the light differs and the temperature varies to cue leaf dropping and flowering.

Medical Evidence and Research

These are some of the major works that prove plant communication:

1.  Karban et al. (2013): Discovered that sagebrush plants were much better able to identify the VOCs of genetically related neighbours than those of genetically unrelated plants--pointing to kin recognition.
2. Simard et al. (19972021): Evidence of the nutrient sharing provided via the underground networks confirms that the resource distribution is not simply competitive, but may be collaborative.
3. Frost et al. (2008): It revealed the tailoring of signals through the specific emission of different VOCs when a fungus or a caterpillar attacks a corn plant.

The Things Plants Do Not Do

It may be understood that plants do not have consciousness as animals do. They do not have a sentient way of feeling, and they do not have memories in the way we do either. But they show:

• Stimulus-response behaviour
• Adaptive learning
• Internal signaling

This qualifies them to be active in their surroundings and not passive ornamentation.

Evolutionary Benefit

What would be the benefit of plants communicating?

• Defence: Pests and diseases are limited to the area, serving as a warning to nearby plants.
• Cooperation: Resources are shared in a dense ecosystem, and this enhances group survival.
• Reproduction: Future generations are taken care of by better pollinating techniques.

Plants have improved their evolutionary advantage in changing environments with the help of communication.

Philosophical Implications

When it comes to plants, is it time that we reframe our treatment as they can monitor, react, communicate, and evolve?

Though they do not experience pain as an animal would, it is thought that they feel stress and even attempt to defend or protect themselves. This has raised debates on environmental ethics and agriculture on the issue of sustainability and the care of plants.

Real-Life Applications

Communication between plants may seem like a gimmick, but it is also practical:

• Agriculture: Various crops may be combined to produce a natural resistance to pests, and therefore, there is less need to use pesticides.
• Urban greening: It is possible to establish self-sustainable ecosystems in urban areas by selecting the right kind of plants that can communicate effectively with each other.
• Climate research: The research on the possibilities of climate change response in forests through plant networks is feasible.

Conclusion

Therefore, do plants talk? Yes--but not just like that. They emit chemical messages, exchange electric signals and find information through the use of fungi underground channels.

They do not speak, but they speak with their language of smell, texture and light, time, a language whose syntax and code we are only now putting together, a code only now beginning to speak.

That is why, the next time you stride through a forest or water those houseplants, you know: they are talking under the silence.

.    .    .