Plants Talk to Each Other

Sometimes it seems like plants are communicating–but this seems impossible. But biologists now say it’s TRUE–we just need to learn their "language."

Researchers added the protein luciferase (which makes fireflies glow in the dark) to the DNA of cabbage plants, so their emissions could be captured on camera. They suspected that a gas is emitted when a plant’s surface is cut or pierced–but does this gas communicate "danger" to nearby plants?

When they cut off the leaf of one of these cabbage plants, it started giving off the gas methyl jasmonate, which wafted over to two nearby cabbage plants (which had not been touched). These plants immediately began producing toxic chemicals on their leaves which fend off predators such as caterpillars.

In the Daily Mail, Tamara Cohen quotes biologist Iain Stewart as saying, " Most people assume that plants lead a rather passive life, but in reality they move and sense and communicate. It’s almost like they show a kind of intelligence.

"It’s fascinating to realize that there could be a constant chatter going on between different plants, that they can in some way sense chemically what is happening to others, like a hidden language which could be going on all around us."

If we don’t fix something soon, we may not HAVE many more plants to study. The Master of the Key warned Whitley about this when he burst into his hotel room in 1998 and started talking. You can The Key in bookstores or you can get a copy that comes with a special bookplate signed by Whitley from our Whitley Strieber Collection. FIND OUT what our future is all about: Read The Key!

And we hope you "plant" yourselves in one of the seats at our Dreamland Festival in May in beautiful, flower-filled Nashville. But hurry–we like to keep it small so we can meet everyone, and tickets are selling out already!