plants...

PLANTS....they are fragile yet strong in another way...

when we talk about plant communication, you might think that it is a form of human-plant communication like asking them to grow faster and healthier. In fact, plants do communicate with each other. Of course, they do not gossip like us. Their communication occurs when they face any threat from their predator. The connection they use to share informantion is known as runners - horizontal stems that physically bond the plants like tubes or cables along the soil surface and underground. Though connected to vertical stems, runners eventually form new buds at the tips and ultimately form a network of plants. If one of the network plants is attacked by caterpillars, the other members of the network are warned via an internal signal to upgrade their chemical and mechanical resistance—making their leaves hard to chew on and less desirable. This system works to spread the information among the plants and to ward off caterpillars. This means the attacked leaf is lost but the others are saved.

However, this connection does have its downside, that is encourages the spreading of the virus. They enter the plant via the leaves, find their way into the stems and are then passively transported to all the network members where they cause new infection.