If you like this then check out the Peabody Award winning 6-part Documentary series from 1995 David Attenborough & filmed by the equally talented but less celebrated BBC Natural History Unit :
The Private Life of Plants [1]
It's AMAZING! They speed up plant time to show layers of behavior that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
"Midwinter, and the countryside is so still, it seems almost lifeless. But these trees and bushes and grasses around me are living organisms just like animals. And they have to face very much the same sort of problems as animals face throughout their lives if they're to survive. They have to fight one another, they have to compete for mates, they have to invade new territories. But the reason that we're seldom aware of these dramas is that plants of course live on a different time-scale."
That's the one. I couldn't think of it the other day to add to a previous comment. It's really eye opening and shows an aspect of plants that you really never expected. When I smell a freshly mowed lawn, I'm reminded of that documentary.
For those enticed by this article, I recommend the wonderful science fiction book, "Semiosis" by Sue Burke. Plant wars, competition, and cooperation are central to the plot.
The foremost chapter is especially good at exploring these themes, which I believe is available elsewhere as a short story. Its inspiration, an anecdote of Burke's where her houseplants had been found to attack and starve each other, shines through quite clearly: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers-issue.html?issue=686...
Only if they are different species. Root fusion is a thing and it can help lift young trees up to the canopy by slipping them extra sugars through the root system.
Two vivid demonstrations of this are albino trees that grow despite having no chlorophyll of their own, and living tree stumps - the stump scars over, yet never grows branches of its own, because it is fused to a sibling nearby. I’ve seen pictures of both, but have only seen the latter in person.
There’s a fantastic board game on this theme, for anyone interested in such things.
Players can only grow their plants or spread seeds in spaces that receive light. Plants obscure light, the bigger the plant, the bigger the shadow area. The sun moves around the board each turn.
All this means some very simple rules lead to some wonderfully complex emergent gameplay, where you’re trying to time actions against the sun’s movement to maximise light intake, while having to deal with other player’s actions unpredictably altering the patterns of shade.
Same with a lawn. Certain plants like clover have advantages like not requiring much nitrogen. Many grasses are very fussy and need good soil to thrive. But the grass finds its advantage in that it can grow taller than clover and therefore block out the sun. As the grass blade gets longer it is able to collect more sun (surface area grows) and establish deeper roots and block out the clover even better.
Many people use a variety of chemicals to hold weeds at bay. But a well watered lawn that is regularly fortified with organic nitrogen and kept at a decent length will more or less prevent most weeds from establishing. Many people cut their lawn way too short, removing the grasses advantage.
The "Upas" tree of history, doesn't exactly exist but it is true that some trees waste product is bioactive and supresses other plants, if not actually digesting sleeping buddhist monks.
>The roots of the black walnut tree emit a chemical known as juglone. This chemical is toxic to many other plants, and can stunt them or kill them in as little as a month. The toxic area around mature black walnut trees is usually a 50- to 60-foot radius around the trunk, but can be as much 80 feet.
Toby Hemenway has a theory that mulberry bushes can neutralize juglones, and create a safe space in the “lee side”, but I was never clear if that was by root zone exclusion or some other mechanism. If the former, I’m curious to find out if it works with a new mulberry in the root zone of an old walnut.
Ants farm mites which attack plants I like. The ants live off the primary disease: the ants are evidence the disease is active. I am sure the plant has a bio defence, its probably the flavour I seek
I have heard it described as ranching or herding, since the ants feed off of the secretions produced by the mites (also aphids IIRC). The ants will move the insects to places on the plant they think will be most fruitful.
The Private Life of Plants [1]
It's AMAZING! They speed up plant time to show layers of behavior that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
"Midwinter, and the countryside is so still, it seems almost lifeless. But these trees and bushes and grasses around me are living organisms just like animals. And they have to face very much the same sort of problems as animals face throughout their lives if they're to survive. They have to fight one another, they have to compete for mates, they have to invade new territories. But the reason that we're seldom aware of these dramas is that plants of course live on a different time-scale."
— David Attenborough’s opening words
[1] (9/10) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123360/