Plants can camouflage odours to avoid being eaten: Study
#GS3 #Environment
Plants in dense tropical forests have evolved to emit similar odours to avoid being eaten by insects, a new study has said.
- Researchers from Europe and North America studied 28 species of insects and 20 species of plants in Chamela-Cuixmala, a tropical forest reserve on the western coast of Mexico.
- They collected the odours of the plants in silicon tubes that were brought back to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, London, to be studied.
- The scientists then used a combination of ‘information theory’ that is used to understand communication patterns in humans and existing understandings of evolutionary biology to reach their conclusion.
