A species of creeper knows 'sniffing'

The parasitic rose does not have a nose but it knows how to smell its prey and attack crops like tomatoes, carrots, onions, citrus, alfalfa and flowers.

This harmful wild plant makes farmers who are always hit by chemicals to destroy it harm the crops it invades. So, finding out how it hunts also helps to find ways to block its path, or help better plant defenses, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania said.

Cuscuta europaea - Cuscuta europaea (Photo: bryologie.uni-bonn)

Many people believe that red silk grows randomly and catches trees when it comes to attacking the tree. But the group led by researcher Consuelo M. De Moraes found that if they placed a tomato plant near a sprouting red silk, the likelihood of it heading towards the tomato plant was 80%. And when they create the smell of tomatoes on a piece of rubber, 73% of the possibility of the red silk will also go there.

" One of the interesting things is that we found this plant to be selective ," added researcher Mark C. Mescher. When they put the dodder between 2 choices: tomato and wheat, it likes tomatoes more.

The dodder will invade wheat if there is no other option, but the team found one of the chemicals produced by the wheat plant caused the red silk to falter, so it would choose tomatoes if possible. .

Therefore, finding a chemical that repels this parasite will lead to a way to help plants resist the invaders.

While pink silk is attracted to tomatoes, they are not interested in fake tomatoes, or vials of moist or red-green water. It is still unclear how they perceive the chemicals produced by host plants. When the seed starts to germinate, it usually moves in different directions, finding the direction that the smell is best and developing in that direction.

Pink silk is one of the 10 most toxic wild plants ranked by the US Department of Agriculture.

MT