Some injured plants can change the way that their neighbours taste, new research shows - an insight that could help scientists to develop the next generation of pesticides.
Many plants have a 'neighbourhood watch' scheme.
Under threat, they alert nearby plants to imminent danger. They use different alarm calls depending on the nature of the threat, be it the jaws of hungry insects or gardening shears. In the laboratory at least, these airborne alarm signals activate genes in neighbouring plants, prompting them to produce the same repellents to ward off the mites. Just as the human body quickly sets about closing an open wound, a trampled or cut plant seals off the area to protect itself from microbes and to prevent opportunistic insects from gaining a free dinner. Intriguingly, neighbouring plants largely ignore these similar yet distinct chemical distress signals.