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Plants are not as stupid as you think. In fact, scientists gradually realize that plants are complex organisms-they can see things, including smell, taste, touch and perhaps hearing.
Professor Anthony Triva Weiss from the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Edinburgh said: "Plants are not as stupid as people think. In fact, their power exceeds that of human beings in some aspects, and even tiny seeds can feel 20 different factors during germination. Such as the time of year and the position of light. Seed Leah uses these factors to determine the correct germination time. Plants are experts in adapting to the natural environment. Venus flytrap, the most famous carnivorous plant, has a sense of touch during its evolution, so when an insect passes its tentacles, its chin will close, and the unfortunate insect will become a turtle in a jar. Darwin was one of the first scholars to point out that this behavior mimics the response of animal nervous system.
According to Darwin's suggestion, John, a medical physiologist at University College London. Patten Sanderson tied the electrode to the venus flytrap, and he found that when the tentacles of the venus flytrap were touched. It produces electrical impulses similar to animal nerve impulses. However, the reaction speed of the two is quite different: the propagation speed of nerve impulses in animals is 100 m per second, while the propagation speed of electric impulses in plants is only 3 cm per second. Perhaps the most impressive example of "quick response" is the mimosa growing in the rainforest of Borneo, which is called "itchy grass" locally. If you touch the leaves of this grass, it will form a ball in a few seconds. In the 1960s, experiments in some American universities showed that the reason for this behavior of mimosa was that calcium quickly flowed into its cells. There are 17 different families, and about 1000 plants are tactile. Nine times out of ten, their reaction ability is inherited from bacteria, the ancestor of all plants. Bacteria can respond to stimuli by generating weak electrical signals.
Plants respond to touch because they think they have been attacked by the wind. In the research conducted by Wake Forest University in North Carolina, biologist Professor mordecai Jaffe found that just touching and tapping the stem for a few seconds every day is enough to increase the density of branches. The plant feels that it must increase its strength to prevent the wind from hurting it. Less than 30 minutes after contact with plants, the genes of plants will produce protein, which will increase the calcium content in the body. The increase of calcium correspondingly leads to the increase of a substance called calmodulin, which can make plants stronger.
Vegetable farmers will benefit from this discovery, because scientists believe that vegetable farmers should beat their seedlings in the greenhouse before moving them outdoors.
Before planting sugar beet, the Japanese will remove the water from sugar beet and beat it with a broom to make it more solid. Janet Bram and Ronald Davis of Stanford University in the United States also proved that spraying water on plants can reduce the growth by as much as 1/3, because plants will use more energy to strengthen their stems when they feel constantly touched.
However, plants that can strengthen stems are of little use to farmers who are bent on increasing production. Shake corn stalks for 30 seconds every day to imitate the wind, so that the yield of corn planted is 40% lower than that of corn that cannot be blown by the wind. So farmers had better grow crops in windless greenhouses.
Visual plants still have the ability to see. They may not have eyes, but Gareth Jenkins, a molecular biologist at Glasgow University, has proved through experiments that plants have a protein that can sense light. Plant tissues contain phytochrome proteins named crytochrome and phytochrome, which can "distinguish" the intensity of light. This ability is likely to enable plants to see wavelengths that we can't see with the naked eye, and it has high sensitivity.
Plants can feel the direction of light, which makes them know when to "wake up" in the morning. It can also prompt them to secrete two colorless pigments, thalidomide and caffeine, which can filter out strong sunlight and act as a "sunscreen" to protect plants from strong ultraviolet B.
Michael Caspar Bauer, a plant physiologist at USDA, has spent more than 30 years studying how plants perceive light. His research is bringing an unconscious revolution to the way plants grow. For decades, farmers planted crops in waterproof black plastic greenhouses to keep moisture, keep roots warm and prevent weeds from growing. However, Caspar Bauer found that in the process of plant growth, the wavelength of light and the quality and quantity of plants can even improve the flavor and resistance of plants to pests.
This is because the color-sensitive protein phytochrome can identify the intensity of light with a specific wavelength, especially in the red light and "far infrared" wavelength range. Although "far infrared" light is not helpful to photosynthesis, it can make plants feel the light reflected by other plants' leaves. Then plants will think that they are surrounded and in danger, and other plants will "steal" vital sunlight. It began to compete for sunlight, transferring the energy originally used for root growth to increase height and fruit, thus improving the chances of spreading seeds to breed the next generation.
Caspar Bauer and his colleague Dennis Dektor used different colors of medical plastic films in field experiments. Plants covered with red film can "feel" the increase of "far infrared" light and grow faster than plants covered with black film. Using red film, the yield increased by 20% to 50%.
Scientists who used to focus on tomatoes are now studying root plants. Caspar Bauer concluded that these plants will benefit from the change of planting methods. After in-depth experiments, he came to the conclusion that the radish planted in orange plastic greenhouse is bigger than that planted in black or transparent plastic greenhouse.
The color of the film not only affects the volume of radish. After learning about Caspar Bauer's research, Robert Wilkinson of Georgia Agricultural Experimental Station began to study the effects of different types of colored films on waxy smooth plant leaves. These films can protect plants from pests and chemicals in alcohol, fat and carbohydrates. Wilkinson said: "To our surprise, the slight difference of the original light will greatly change the waxy characteristics of the leaf surface." The black film reduces the wax content, but it can promote the growth of other insect-resistant cells.
Vision is very important to plants, and colored films can even affect the taste of fruits. Caspar Bauer and his colleagues found that plants grown with colored films really taste different. George Antonius of Kentucky State University conducted a series of blindfolded tasting experiments on turnips planted with blue, white and green films. Among the 25 experimenters, all but one said that the radish planted with blue film was "exciting"; Radish planted with white film has a light taste; Green film makes radish taste "soft" and "almost sweet". Therefore, plants can feel and see.