Plants Communicate Using Fungi 91
Shipud writes "In response to aphid attacks, some plants produce chemicals that repel the aphids and attract wasps, the aphids' natural enemies. Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have shown that plants attacked by aphids can communicate that information to neighboring plants via existing networks of fungi in the soil. Thus fungal symbiosis with plants is shown to be taken one step further: not only do they provide nutrients to plants, they also function as communication hardware."
Welcome to three months ago (Score:3, Insightful)
Old news [bbc.co.uk]
Re:Some day... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not at all. Fruit is in many (most?) cases an evolutionary "bargain" - the fruit provides a calorie-rich meal for an animal, while the animal then transports the seeds and deposits them in a pile of fertilizer at a distance much. Not all the seeds survive the process, but enough to be a viable way for the plant to spread. Just one of many examples of how plants harness animals to do their bidding.
Besides which vegetables are typically harvested from the adult plant, it's only fruits, nuts, and grains that include seeds.