The Smell of Grass Screaming

When attacked, plants release airborne chemical compounds, plants use these compounds almost like language.  The lovely scent of cut grass is the reek of your lawn screaming in agony.  Grass sheared off and left drying on the lawn releases up to 10 times more compounds as the cut grass still rooted in the ground.  To look at it another way, it’s screaming harder and louder.

Plants talk with these airborne compounds, signalling danger to other nearby, downwind plants.  The plants down wind respond in turn by preparing defences by increasing production of chemicals that caused their leaves to taste vile to insects.  Like a stinky Chinese whisper, the down wind plants often pass on this message even further down wind with chemicals of their own.

German scientists studying a wild tobacco plants have noticed that the compounds it releases are very specific.  When the plants are infested by caterpillars, the plants release a chemical that attract specific predatory bugs that eat the specific caterpillars attacking the plant.  The signal they send out can vary depending on the attack they are suffering.  So not only are the plants stinking in agony, they are screaming for a specific type of creature they know will help.

What this means is that vegetarianism is in fact more cruel than carnivoreism.  The thing to keep in mind is that plants are very different to animals.  If someone cuts your legs off, your legs don’t live long on their own.  Plants are different, the carrot you are about to throw in the cooking pot often lives for weeks in crisper draw with out it’s stalk and leaves, despite being away from soil and sun.  Generally speaking when you eat an animal, you kill it first.  However all the high and mighty vegetarians chomp and mangle away at defenceless living fruit and veggies without a second thought.  So if you enjoy the smell of steaming vegetables, keep in mind you are revelling in the screaming stench of some plants traumatic death.

It’s a possibility that plants may have an alien form of consciousness completely different to animals.  While you may not hear your lawns distress calls over the roar of your 140cc mower, your shrubs could still be plotting revenge on you for it.