The world of plants may seem quiet and calm.
But you don't need to go much farther than your front door to find drama afoot.
Like, that sweet, summery scent of freshly cut grass?
It's actually the plant equivalent of a scream.
Through chemicals, grass is sounding a warning call to nearby plants, which start putting up their defensive dukes, getting ready to protect themselves from damage.
And plants are smart.
They can tell the difference between mechanical damage, like that lawn mower, and being chomped by an insect.
If bugs are attacking, plants can release special chemicals that yell to other bugs nearby, "Please come eat whatever's eating me." So your quiet, summer afternoon has just turned into a plant action movie, complete with elaborate fight sequences.
We humans think we're such a big deal, but if you squished up every living thing on the planet into one big ball, eighty percent of it would be plants, and less than one percent would be mammals.
Some folks say we're missing the forest for the trees, but we're also missing the trees!
