Plant World

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

If plants could speak, they would teach a person many useful lessons of coexistence, which cannot be done by the “highest link” of the life chain, full of self-conceit about himself. At the same time, there are plants whose behavior is very similar to human behavior, and therefore causes surprise, admiration or sadness, depending on which human trait they copy. Although, who knows, after all, plants are much older than humans, and therefore it is more likely that they do not copy humans, but humans copy the behavior of plants

Mimosa bashful

The Latin name "Mimosa pudica" hides a low herbaceous plant that rarely rises to the heavens up to 1.5 meters. More often this plant is from 30 to 70 cm high.

But attention to yourself

Mimosa attracts not by growth, but by the amazing behavior of its bipinnate leaves. The hand of a man will touch them, the cheered children will clap their hands, a dashing motorcyclist will rush along the road, as the leaves begin to draw closer, tightly clinging to each other, and then sink to the ground, as if a red girl lowered her thick eyelashes from embarrassment. That's why they nicknamed

Mimosa "bashful"

Although the real reason for this behavior is, of course, not the shyness of the plant, but a violation of the water balance in the leaves, from which their elasticity is lost. Moreover, a second is enough for the leaves to droop in confusion, and it takes several hours to return to their previous state. So the girl is instantly embarrassed, and then comes to her senses for a long time, experiencing again and again the awkwardness of the moment.

Invader of expanses of water

Gardeners are familiar with many plants that should not be allowed into the garden, given their aggressive nature. The list of such invaders will take more than one notebook sheet. Among them there are well-known dandelions, cornflowers, tansy, dimple, goldenrod (solidago) and many others.

It is especially dangerous to plant overseas plants without studying their habits in advance. First, many of them are poisonous. Secondly, the newcomers often have such cocky characters that, before you have time to look back, they will displace the aborigines from the territory.

But, the most stubborn conqueror of open spaces in the world is, perhaps, Water hyacinth … True, the Russians are not afraid of it, since it grows in tropical regions, rapidly populating rivers, ponds and lakes.

The fertility and productivity of the plant is so high that it allows you to walk in the reservoir like Jesus Christ, without getting your feet wet, such a dense cover forms the Hyacinth.

No matter how many ways people have come up with the plant, including the use of dynamite, Hyacinth always comes out the winner.

Plants-parasites

There are those among plants who do not want to extract food from the soil, which requires certain efforts for full assimilation. They find a hard worker plant, dig into it with their suckers and draw out juices that are already ready for consumption, dooming the poor man to starvation. How similar it is to human society.

One of these malicious parasites is

Dodder from the Bindweed family. Its tenacious seeds can lie in the soil for several years without disturbing the farmer, and then suddenly reveal a sprout from the ground, which by smell (proven by scientists) will find the victim plant. With its threadlike stem, devoid of leaves, Dodder entangles the selected plant, breaks off the ground and begins to feed on the victim's juices, deeply penetrating its tissues with its suckers.

Any plant can be a victim of Dodder, from weeds to various vegetables. Even shrubs and trees can be captured by her.

Free nutrition allows the leafless Dodder to acquire dense inflorescences collected from small flowers, which turn into seeds that remain viable for a long time.