plant communication

[rainbowgardener]

This is an amazing little video about plant communication:

[LIcenter]

The awesomeness of nature abounds if only one looks.

Here's a saddle back caterpillar with the larvae doing it's thing.

[applestar]

Cool beans! I believe this is just one example -- it's really fascinating.

...I wonder how it relates to the way I keep finding humongous clusters of earthworms under/in the roots of every spring weed as well as crops I pull up. They are getting custom worm casting service.

[AnnaIkona]

That is really amazing...never knew that. Thanks for sharing the video!

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, there are many other examples, which we are only now learning about.

It is certainly possible that the plants are exuding something from the roots that draws/feeds the earthworms.

"Scientists have discovered that maize crops emit chemical signals which attract growth-promoting microbes to live amongst their roots. This is the first chemical signal that has been shown to attract beneficial bacteria to the maize root environment." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 205401.htm

Plant roots and seeds exude a spectrum of molecules into the soil to attract their bacterial symbionts. The alfalfa symbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti possesses eight chemoreceptors to sense its environment and mediate chemotaxis toward its host.
https://aem.asm.org/content/80/11/3404.full

Potatoes and some other plants exude CO2 and other attractants from their roots, that draw beneficial nematodes (from a book called Plant Nematology https://books.google.com/books?id=LTv7A ... ts&f=false

I didn't find anything about earthworms, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen.