Plants packed close enough to touch are more resilient to stress

For a plant growing on the forest floor, a beam of light from an opening canopy can be concerning. But new research suggests that plants growing together may be able to warn each other about such stressful events by touching their leaves, becoming collectively more resilient as a result.

“It’s sort of like an alarm,” says Ron Mittler, a plant biologist at the University of Missouri in Columbia. “Like, ‘Hey, something is coming our way, get ready.’”

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