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Tag: plants

  • 6 Incredible Things Plants Can Do

    6 Incredible Things Plants Can Do

    At first glance, plants may seem rather dull. They stand silently, photosynthesizing quietly. Not the most eventful life, right? But in reality, trees and shrubs have plenty of surprising and varied superpowers

    Trees Communicate Using Fungi

    Despite their outward calm, trees are quite resourceful. Evolution has forced them to develop various survival mechanisms. For example, they created the first prototype of the internet long before humanity existed.

    You might think this sounds crazy, but it’s a scientifically confirmed fact: plants in forests share nutrients through underground fungal networks that envelop their roots.

    Fungi live in symbiosis with trees—they help the trees in exchange for nourishment. This is called a mycorrhizal network.

    The fungal threads transfer carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, water, and many other substances between trees. If one tree is in the shaded understory and struggling with photosynthesis, it sends a distress signal to its more fortunate neighbors through the fungal network, and they send nutrients to help.

    But trees of the same species don’t just help each other. Sometimes they try to harm their competitors by releasing toxic substances into the fungal network to drive out unwanted neighbors.

    Some particularly bold plants even forgo photosynthesis entirely, relying solely on the nutrients they receive from the mycorrhizal network. It’s like tapping into your neighbor’s power line and stealing their electricity.

    Plants Send Warnings to Their Kin About Danger

    You might think plants are defenseless, unable to fight back when something starts eating them. That’s not entirely true—many poisonous plants exist. Even without poison, plants have developed original ways to protect themselves from being eaten.

    For example, the cowpea, part of the legume family, can literally call for help if it’s being eaten by the caterpillars of the fall armyworm. When the larvae start munching on its leaves, the cowpea releases special phytocompounds that make the caterpillar think it’s inedible.

    And that’s not all. Neighboring cowpea plants detect these compounds, realize a predator is nearby, and begin producing similar substances to make themselves unappetizing.

    A similar defense mechanism is found in the common tomato, as well as in tobacco, sorghum, rice, and many other crops.

    However, clever tomatoes have their match. Some especially cunning species of caterpillars have learned to release substances in their saliva that suppress the signals sent by the plants being eaten.

    Trees Hire Entire Armies of Bodyguards

    Unfortunately, most trees can’t smack aggressors with their branches like the Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter series. But that doesn’t mean they are defenseless. Some trees call on armies of tiny friends to handle their problems.

    For example, the bullhorn acacia lives in symbiosis with ants of the species *Pseudomyrmex ferruginea*. These aggressive predators kill any insect that dares invade their territory.

    The acacia produces special proteins that disrupt the digestion of insects and can even kill them, but these proteins are harmless to the ants. The tree feeds its protectors, and in return, they attack anything that threatens it—even livestock.

    Moreover, the acacia lures ants to its damaged branches, which are being eaten by some predator. Using special signaling substances, the tree directs its soldiers to the aggressor and tells them who to attack.

    Other trees not only use insects as their personal army but also feed off them. For instance, ants of the Azteca genus live in the leaves of the plant Cecropia and protect it from competing ants—like leaf cutters. Additionally, they nourish the plant: 98% of the nitrogen Cecropia gets comes from the ants’ waste.

    Plants Pet Bees Hooked on Caffeine

    It’s well known that a passion for coffee can become quite unhealthy. Even people with free will find it hard to resist the energizing beverage, and insects with their primitive instincts have no chance against caffeine.

    According to research, plants from the coffee and citrus families use caffeine to attract bees—who enjoy nectar with a high caffeine content. The substance stimulates the insects’ neurons, causing them to dance more actively and attract more of their kin to pollinate the plant.

    Caffeine, as discovered by scientists at Newcastle University in the UK, influences bee behavior to the point where they only pollinate the flowers that provide them with this substance. As a result, we end up with tricked insects hooked on alkaloids and plants that shamelessly exploit them for reproduction.

    Some Plants Can Smell

    It sounds crazy, but plants, like animals, use their sense of smell. As botanist Daniel Chamovitz explains, plants detect airborne odors and use them to determine, for example, the ripeness of their fruits or the presence of nearby insect predators.

    But what’s even more amazing is that some especially cunning plants use their sense of smell not just for defense but for attack.

    For example, Cuscuta, a parasitic vine well-known to gardeners, winds around other plants and feeds on their sap. Dr. Consuelo De Moraes, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, claims that Cuscuta uses smell to find its victims.

    In experiments conducted by De Moraes, the parasite ignored tomato dummies and accurately identified live tomatoes, even in the dark. The smell of the tomato helped it determine the direction in which to grow to reach its food source.

    And They Can Even Explode

    Meet Hura crepitans, or the sandbox tree, from the Euphorbiaceae family. In the Amazon rainforest, it’s called the dynamite tree.

    Its pumpkin-like fruits, when ripe, literally explode, scattering spikes, seeds, and poisonous sap. The explosion is powerful enough to injure a person. Livestock frequently suffer from this tree as well.

    Ingesting its fruits leads to cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. So even if someone survives the explosion and reaches the pulp, they won’t go unpunished.

    As if having grenade-like fruits wasn’t enough, the tree is also covered in sharp thorns that can cause serious injury.

    The sap from its broken thorns causes a terrible rash, and if it gets into the eyes, blindness. Local tribes use it to poison fish.

  • Japanese Ivy (Hedera Rhombea): The Winter Ivy

    Japanese Ivy (Hedera Rhombea): The Winter Ivy

    Across the ancient moss-draped stone walls of Kyoto temples, the rugged coastal cliffs of Honshu, and the evergreen forests of Jeju Island and Taiwan climbs one of East Asia’s most resilient botanical treasures: Japanese Ivy (Hedera rhombea), known in Japan as Kizuta (“Tree Ivy”) or Fuyuzuta (“Winter Ivy”). While summer vines like Boston ivy drop their crimson leaves at the first November frost, Hedera rhombea keeps its glossy, diamond-shaped emerald foliage gleaming against grey granite and white winter snow—playing a vital role in East Asian ecology, traditional herbal medicine, and centuries of classical Japanese poetry.

    Botanical Identity and the Secret of Two Leaf Shapes

    A proud member of the ginseng family (Araliaceae), Hedera rhombea is a woody evergreen climbing liana native to the coastal and mountainous woodland regions of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and eastern China. Using thousands of tiny, specialized aerial rootlets along its stems that secrete a natural bio-adhesive cement, the vine can scale vertical rock faces and giant cedar trunks up to thirty feet (ten meters) high without harming the host tree’s vascular bark.

    What fascinates botanists—and gives the species its Latin name rhombea—is its dramatic heterophylly (the ability of a single plant to grow two completely different leaf shapes depending on its maturity and sunlight exposure):

    • Juvenile Climbing Leaves: When the young vine is creeping across shaded forest floors or climbing up a vertical trunk, its leaves grow with three to five pointed lobes, resembling the classic silhouette of European English ivy.
    • Adult Flowering Leaves (The Rhomboid Diamond): Once the vine reaches the top of a sunlit wall or canopy and matures into its reproductive phase, it stops growing lobed leaves altogether. Instead, its adult branches produce smooth, unlobed, diamond-shaped (rhomboid) or oval leaves with waxy dark-green surfaces that shed heavy snow effortlessly.

    In late autumn (October and November), just as almost every other forest plant is shutting down for winter, mature Japanese ivy bursts into bloom with spherical umbels of tiny, greenish-yellow flowers rich in late-season nectar—providing a critical survival buffet for native Asian bees, hoverflies, and wasps before ripening into clusters of glossy jet-black berries in spring that feed migrating thrushes and bulbuls.

    “Winter Ivy” in Japanese Culture and Family Crests

    In Japanese language and aesthetics, callers carefully distinguish between two plants that share the English word “ivy.” Deciduous Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) is called Natsuzuta (“Summer Ivy”), famous in haiku poetry for turning fiery scarlet in autumn before leaving bare vine skeletons behind. Hedera rhombea, by contrast, is celebrated as Fuyuzuta (“Winter Ivy”) or Kizuta because it stays lush and green through the harshest January blizzards.

    Because of its tenacity in clinging to castle stones and flourishing in the dead of winter, the stylized leaf of Japanese ivy (the Tsuta motif) became one of the ten most prestigious heraldic family crests (Kamon) in feudal Japan, worn on the armor and silk kimono of samurai clans including the Matsudaira and Todo families, and later adopted by geisha houses as an emblem of enduring loyalty, prosperity, and longevity.

    Traditional Herbal Medicine and Variegated Cultivars

    In traditional East Asian phytotherapy—known as Kampo in Japan and Hanbang in Korea, where the plant is called Songak (“Pine Cliff Ivy”)—the stems and leaves of Hedera rhombea are harvested in autumn and dried in the sun. Rich in triterpenoid saponins (specifically hederacoside C and alpha-hederin) and flavonoids, decoctions of the plant have been used for centuries by herbalists to soothe joint inflammation, relieve spasmodic winter coughs, reduce blood pressure, and treat skin sores externally.

    In modern horticulture, Japanese breeders during the Edo Period and twentieth century selected exquisite variegated dwarf cultivars of Hedera rhombea—such as ‘Variegata’ (Fuiri Kizuta), featuring creamy-white margins around emerald diamond leaves—making it a prized specimen for traditional Japanese rock gardens, bonsai tray landscapes (saikei), and shaded urban walls.

  • What do Plants do Against Sunburn?

    Sunlight is essential for photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert light into chemical energy. However, just as with humans, giving them an excessive amount of it could prove fatal. On the other hand, when it’s hot the plants can’t easily hide from the sun or put on sunscreen in contrast to us. What happens to plants when they are subjected to an abnormally high level of sunlight?

    During the course of the day, plants carry out the chemical process of photosynthesis by utilizing the chlorophyll that is found in their leaves. They begin by converting carbon dioxide and water into glucose by utilizing the energy that is provided by the sun.

    The next step in the process involves the production of additional carbohydrates, such as cellulose and starch. Besides that, they almost unintentionally produce oxygen that is required for the survival of other living things; as a result, entire ecosystems are dependent on this metabolic interaction.

    The Energy Contained in Sunlight Is 1,000 Times More Than Needed

    A sunburned leaf
    A sunburned leaf (Image credit: Shutterstock)

    Even an overcast sky is sufficient for this foundation of life to continue to operate at close to a 100 percent effectiveness level. So, in reality, not that much sunlight is actually necessary. There are a great number of plants able to survive and even thrive in low-light environments, such as growing in the shade cast by other plants or near polar circles.

    On the other hand, when there is no cloud cover and the scorching summer sun is shining down from a clear sky, the plant receives one thousand times more energy than usual. If chlorophyll takes in more energy than the system is able to process, then potentially large amounts of aggressive oxygen radicals will be produced.

    These could cause the plant to be completely destroyed or suffer significant damage. So, the plant needs to find a way to get rid of this extra energy without hurting itself or the environment around it. Protecting plants from the sun’s harmful rays is essential to their ability to thrive in its presence.

    Special Molecules to Prevent Sunburn

    There is an orange molecule in plants for sunburn protection. These special carotenoids combine with green chlorophyll to form a complex. This would not be possible if only green chlorophyll were present. In this combination, the carotenoid molecule is the one that ends up receiving the sun’s excess energy that the chlorophyll molecule has taken in.

    After that, the energy is converted into harmless heat, which acts as a sort of lightning conductor. Because of quantum mechanical processes, the two molecules act as if they were one, and they give back the extra light they have taken in as heat to their surroundings.

    These two molecules will not combine into a single molecule until there is excess sunlight. Even when a cloud passes in front of the sun, the two molecules separate and become two separate molecules again.

    The process of photosynthesis is always able to operate at the greatest degree of efficiency without going out of control and resulting in the plant becoming sunburned because of how rapidly molecules combine and separate again.