(oops you"ve definitely never seen this fact before)Hello and welcome to your final Daily Fun Fact From Flora of the week.Today we are going to have a look at trees
and just how BADASS
they are.20+ Badass Trees That Refuse To Die No Matter WhatOne example of a badass treeThere is a relatively new area of research looking into the ways that trees are able to communicate between each other.YES.
Trees actually talk to each other.Now they can do this by literally releasing molecules into the
air that can then be taken up by other trees. The molecules that are released are known as volatile organic compounds
( VOCs ).This can have various different uses and the one that I am going to tell you about is the role that it plays in signalling incoming pests.There is a kind of tree called the lodgepole pine tree
( Pinus contorta ) and they are predated on by the mountain pine beetle
( Dendroctonus ponderosae ). I"m giving you the Latin names because I feel fancy.Pinus contorta subsp. murrayana (Sierra lodgepole pineThese beetles are a bit of a nightmare and the bore through the outer layers of the trees bark and get into their vascular tissues — their xylem
and their phloem
(these are the tubes that carry water and various compounds up and down the plant stem).Mountain Pine Beetle l Epic Threat - Our Breathing PlanetOnce they’re in the vascular tissues, the beetle uses the symbiotic fungi
that it carries with it and uses it to essentially
eat the tree from the inside out.If you’re the tree, this is 10/10 not
what you want to be happening.SO — what the tree does is it releases defensive compounds
that make the phloem really quite unpleasant (and pretty much entirely uninhabitable) for both the beetle and the fungus.But the lodgepole pine doesn’t keep the fact that it’s being munched to itself, it releases these VOCs
that are able to act like little chemical messengers. These are received by other trees that can then start to produce these defensive compounds
so that when the beetles arrive, the phloem is already set up and full of unpleasant stuff.HOWEVER, what is NUTS here is that the lodgepole pine will only let closely related trees know
that the beetles are on their way.Plants Talk. Plants Listen. Heres How : Krulwich WondersFlora — HOW THE DIDDLY FUCK
does a tree know how closely related its other tree friends are to it?!It releases specific blends
of these VOCs that can only be detected by their relatives. That means that only kin
receive their signals and so are more likely to survive.This tree has essentially gone — Ahhh fuck the others I"m gonna save my fam and the rest can die. Pretty snazzy
in evolutionary terms when you think about it. Your relatives share your genes. If your relatives survive — so will your genes!But what is perhaps EVEN MORE NUTS
is that there is another type of VOC called phenols. Now sometimes trees release phenols because they can be toxic to insects
and so don’t taste very nice
— therefore acting as feeding deterrents.BUT what trees can also do is use these phenols to attract predatorsof the insects that are eating them. That way the tree gets protection.LIFE HACK: Getting eaten by something? Get the thing that eats it to come and help!When plants are exposed to insect feeding, they up their production of jasmonic acid , which helps to stimulate the production of these phenols. The phenols, when released, attract predatory mites
and parasitic wasps that come and EAT THE PEST RIGHT OFF THE TREE.Badass GIF - Badass Universe - Discover & Share GIFsThis hormone also increases the production of nectar
which can attract ants that will also help to displace the insects that are bothering the tree.Hot damn trees are cool.Love you,Flora xxx
