How Plants Communicate: VOCs, Mycorrhizae & the Hidden Language of Plants: Best of Growing Joy

Plant friend, I'm so excited to bring you this Best of Growing Joy series, a throwback episode to 2020. In the pandemic, I let my plant nerd freak flag fly extremely high. New York Botanical Garden had only in-person classes at the Botanical Garden in the Bronx, and in the pandemic they brought those classes online. I took every class they had to offer: soil science, plant science 101, and this class on tree communication with a professor I loved, Dr. Elle Barnes. She gave this fascinating class on the secret world of plant communication, particularly trees.

This is the replay of the episode I did with her after taking her course because I was so fascinated. I found her entire course incredible and awe-inspiring and wanted to bring a sliver of it to our community. A couple years later, I wanted to bring it back in case you might've missed it way down the feed.

In this conversation, Dr. Barnes and I explore the wild world of the "wood wide web" and how plants use fungi and VOCs—volatile organic compounds—to communicate. It's gonna blow your mind. You're never gonna look at trees the same. So buckle up.

 

In this episode, we learn:

• How and why plants communicate with each other
• The “fake news” that VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) are all bad for us
• How plants use VOCs to communicate with each other and themselves
• The above ground plant communication system
• If plants ACTUALLY clean the air, and how and why we might have been mislead with this notion
• If VOCS are all bad
• The difference between a VOC that comes off of a plant and one that comes off of a carpet
• The truth about the scent of fresh cut grass (and why it smells that way)
• What the scent of a rose actually is (it's a VOC!)
• How plants use VOCs to attract pollinators
• Maria's OBSESSION with The Overstory
• How plants and animals have evolved together
• “The enemy of my enemy” theory when it comes to how plants attract certain pollinators
• The “Wood Wide Web” and the underground plant communication system
• How fungi help trees and plants communicate with each other
• Dr Barnes' most “mind blowing” fact about trees and VOC
• Why Monstera are conditioned to look for darkness and not light
• VOCs and the Ozone

 

Mentioned in our conversation:

• Dr. Barnes's first episode on Growing Joy: Mind Blowing Facts from Intro to Plant Science
• The Science of Tree Communication Course at NYBG
• The Overstory (Maria's absolute favorite book)

 

Next time you smell a rose, basil, or the forest after rain… which VOC fact will you think about first?

Check out the full show notes and blog to learn what’s really behind your favorite natural scents and how plants use them to survive!

 

 

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