Possibly creating a tricky moral dilemma for the “I won’t eat anything that knows its mother” school of vegetarianism, scientists have discovered that certain species of plants can recognize its own kin.
The New York Times explains the phenomena in a hilariously somber report found here.
In addition to disillusioning plant-eaters, the humble Great Lakes sea rocket issues a devastating blow to those who would have us believe that nepotism is only prevalent in families with roots on the Mayflower.
“The studies are part of an emerging picture of life among plants, one in which these organisms, long viewed as so much immobile, passive greenery, can be seen to sense all sorts of things about the plants around them and use that information to interact with them,” The Times reports.
Susan A. Dudley, an evolutionary plant ecologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who carried out the break-through study on sea rockets giddily (ominously?) intoned, “Plants have a secret social life.”
