From the BBC:
Title:
Fungus network 'plays role in plant communication'
"Plants can communicate the onset of an attack from aphids by making use of an underground network of fungi, researchers have found."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie...
They found that if
- you grow five broad bean plants fairly close together,
- and let three develop mycorrhizal networks
- but prevent that in the other two plants,
- and put bags over each plant so they can't use through-the-air chemical communication,
- then infest one of the networked plants with aphids
...
the infested plant deploys chemicals that repel the aphids and attract parasitic wasps that are aphids' natural predators (known process)
... but also ...
the other two networked plants deploy the same chemicals even though they had no aphids.
The plants with no mycorrhizal connections did NOT activate their anti-aphid chemicals!
Nature is clever.
