What Plants Sense And ‘Say’ May Impact The Future Of Weed Control
December 21, 2016 Scientists with the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) say plants can sense and communicate in ways that may surprise you, and those findings are opening the door for innovative new approaches to weed control, according to an article on the Weed Science Society of American website.
“Historically we’ve thought about plants as relatively simple organisms, but in fact they are almost constantly changing as they sense and respond to what’s going on in their surroundings,” says WSSA Fellow Clarence Swanton, Ph.D., a researcher with the University of Guelph.
Swanton has made a number of important discoveries about plants and what they seem to sense. Most recently, he found that corn seeds could detect whether weeds are growing above ground. They make that determination based on light reflected by weeds that penetrates the soil surface. If the seeds sense weeds are lurking, cellular changes are triggered to delay germination – resulting in unrecoverable yield losses.
Swanton believes that with further research, scientists may find a way to protect seeds from the stresses they experience when they detect weeds growing above them. “With the right treatment, we might be able to trigger a beneficial reaction and actually boost the development and emergence of new seedlings,” he says.
Read the full story on WSSA.net.
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