Beans use an immune receptor to call in airstrikes on caterpillars

When they're being eaten, bean plants release chemicals that draw in parasitic wasps.

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[SixDegrees]

We definitely don't give plants the respect they deserve. Never forget that you can cut a tree down completely and the stump can survive for something like up to ten years, because other nearby trees will share vital nutrients via their root systems.

What does this mean, boys and girls? It means that even trees have better social support systems/healthcare than the average American.

Actually, grafted root systems are a myth, promoted mainly by Suzanne Simard, with recent criticisms based on lack of actual evidence and a good dollop of anthropomorphism. She's done good work on forest ecology, but this particular claim is off the rails.

 

[SixDegrees]

I won't proclaim to be a biologist, because I most definitely am not, but from my own nerding out, recently watching a bunch of mycology documentaries, it's not so much that the root systems themselves are grafted or physically connected, but that an entire ecosystem of fungal roots and what-not share nutrients from root system to root system in a rather impressive display of symbiosis.

My expertise is fire life safety, so YMMV in the above, but it certainly made sense to me (and was pretty cool to learn, to boot)

I'm familiar with the concept, it's just that there isn't any actual evidence supporting it.

 

[SixDegrees]

There are trees that can grow back from a stump.

https://fortcollinstreecare.com/can-trees-grow-back-from-stumps/

However in the wild it is extremely rare.

Suckering is pretty common. Even American Chestnuts laid low by blight over a century ago still send up suckers; they eventually succumb to the blight themselves after a few years, but they're the basis for several efforts hoping for a somatic mutation with resistance. Same is true for many other trees.

See also: coppicing, the practice of cutting down mature trees to rejuvenate them.