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THIS ENDS this weekend's fragment in nature, in plant olfaction, to be continued on the next few weekends. View in LinkedIn

FAMOUS EXPERIMENTS of dodder plants, testing their ability to 'smell' a tomato plant to parasitize. "Plants detect a volatile chemical in the air, and they convert this signal (albeit nerve-free) into a physiological response. Surely this could be considered olfaction." (Chamovitz). https://lnkd.in/ebihGuY View in LinkedIn

"DODDER uses olfaction to hunt down its quarry. It can distinguish potential victims from their smell, homing in on its favourites and also using scents emitted by unhealthy specimens to avoid them." https://lnkd.in/eKXZv2j View in LinkedIn

DODDER. "The parasitic vine called dodder is the sniffer dog of the vegetable world. It contains almost no chlorophyll - the pigment that most plants use to make food - so to eat it must suck the sugary sap from other plants." https://lnkd.in/eKXZv2j View in LinkedIn

PLANT OLFACTION. "The tendrils of plants are especially sensitive to airborne volatile organic compounds." Parasites such as Dodder make use of this in locating and locking onto prey. https://lnkd.in/eq7X3tN View in LinkedIn

"ELECTROCHEMICAL EXCITATION is caused by ionic fluxes through the cell plasma membrane, creating an electric charge modification in the membrane itself, as well as a differential charge on either side. Plant plasma membranes always maintain a potential, the cell interior being more negative than the exterior, arising mainly from the activity of electrogenic pumps." https://lnkd.in/e6_VTMg View in LinkedIn

PLANT ACTION POTENTIALS. "The existence of electrophysiological mechanisms for information perception, transmission and processing between different plant organs and tissues, allowing the expression of fast and accurate physiological reactions to specific biotic or abiotic stimuli, is expressed by means of real-time detectable action (APs) and variation (VPs) potentials." https://lnkd.in/e6_VTMg View in LinkedIn

CHIRAL MOLECULES are responsible for the characteristic smells are also part of the synthetic chemistry of terpen-4-ol, linalool, tea tree oil, lavender oil, lemon oil and many other essential oils. https://lnkd.in/ecJcdBW View in LinkedIn

PLANT ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY. "While plants have no neurons these cells are capable of making an electrical action potential in response to environmental stimuli, just like mammals." Once an urban myth, now supported by science. https://lnkd.in/ejqmafX View in LinkedIn

LANGUAGE OF SNIFFERS. Rose oxide isomers differ in smell: "1. Floral-green, clean, rose, green, strong; 2. Floral-green, green, herbal, minty, fruity; 3. Herbal-green-floral, smell of hay, green, earthy; 4. Herbal-green-floral, fruity, herbal rose, citrus (bitter rind)." https://lnkd.in/eMTZmZF View in LinkedIn