Summary: 446 0169-5347/00/$ ­ see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0169-5347(00)01986-8 TREE vol. 15, no. 11 November 2000
JOURNAL CLUB
Of course, neighboring plants in natural
communities interact: we usually think of
plants competing for sunlight and soil
nutrients. Few topics in plant ecology have
inspired so much excitement and controversy,
however, as communication between plants.
The idea, simply put, is that rooted and
immobile plants might act to increase their
levels of defense by responding to cues from
neighbors that are being attacked by
herbivores or pathogens. As some authors
have suggested, perhaps `listening trees' is a
better descriptor than `talking trees', but, in
either case, the interaction holds
unquestionably fascinating natural history.
Communication is so prevalent and important
among animals that its presence in plant
communities could be revolutionary. In

Source: Agrawal, Anurag - Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Entomollogy, Cornell University

Collections: Environmental Sciences and Ecology