Submit To Your New Plant Overlords, Hoomans!

[pErvinalia]

Venus flytraps can count, according to scientists who tested the carnivorous plants and found they use their mathematical skill to conserve energy and avoid false alarms.

Researchers in Germany learned that the Venus flytrap adjusts its feeding behaviour according to the number of times the sensitive trigger hairs on its special leaves that resemble spring traps are stimulated.

“The carnivorous plant Dionaea muscipula, also known as Venus flytrap, can count how often it has been touched by an insect visiting its capture organ in order to trap and consume the animal prey,” said lead scientist Prof Rainer Hedrich, from the University of Wurzburg.

Hedrich’s team fooled the plants into thinking an insect had landed on it by applying increasing numbers of artificial “touches” to their trap hairs.

They showed that a single touch to a trigger hair was enough to prime a trap, setting it in “ready” mode but without snapping shut. A second touch caused the trap to close around the prey.

More touches stimulated the plant further so that after five triggers it started to produce digestive enzymes and molecules that take up nutrients.

Hedrich said: “The number of action potentials informs the plant about the size and nutrient content of the struggling prey. This allows the Venus flytrap to balance the cost and benefit of hunting.”

The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology.

And some intelligent people believe plants "learn", communicate, and even have a form of consciousness.

[JimC]

If by learning they mean changing their chemical responses in reaction to past events, and by communicating they mean the chemical signals that go from one plant to others, triggering responses, sure.

A very long bow to start talking the C word, though...

[pErvinalia]

Cunt!

[JimC]

You probably meant to say stigma...

[laklak]

Stigma, wasn't that the guy in the crash helmet? The one whose face you never see?

[JimC]

Stigma, wasn't that the guy in the crash helmet? The one whose face you never see?

No, it's his mum...

[Tyrannical]

Researchers in Germany learned that the Venus flytrap adjusts its feeding behaviour according to the number of times the sensitive trigger hairs on its special leaves that resemble spring traps are stimulated.

I was taught that 30 years ago in high school biology

[Strontium Dog]

I've seen this movie, the Triffids.

[mistermack]

Plants count the days of the year, to determine when to shed their leaves, or shut down their system for winter. Or perhaps they do it by counting the hours of daylight. Not that they would work in hours. But they clearly respond to quantities in all sorts of situations.

[piscator]

With long night plants, the blooming hormone is destroyed by light. So as dark overtakes day, more hormone accumulates and the plant begins to bloom.