Botanical Barbarity: 9 Plant Defense Mechanisms

Written by: Richard Pallardy

Theres no brain in a cabbage. Thats axiomatic. But the

lack of a central nervous system doesnt prevent them,
or other plants, from protecting themselves. Some
species boast armature such as thorns, or spines that
ward off slavering herbivores. Some are loaded with
poisons to sicken or kill them. And while tomatoes may
not be able to scream, as L. Ron Hubbard once claimed,

some plants do emit compounds that warn their

compatriots of approaching threats: the botanical
equivalent of a smoke signal. Rooted to the fundament

though they may be, theyre not just vegetative victims content to idly watch their hard-won greenery
masticated into oblivion and ejected from the back end of some lazy cud-chewer.

9 Thorn
Thorns are basically pointy branches or stems.
Their defensive function is somewhat selfevident: theyre stabby. And contrary to what (the
band) Poison would have you believe, not a
single rose has one. See the next item for
explanation. (As to the sad, sad songwriting
abilities of cowboys, I cant say either way.)

8 Prickle
Roses actually have prickles, not thorns. Unlike
thorns, prickles are actually pointed
protuberances from a plants epidermis. Think of
them as razor-sharp freckles. While they shield
the plants that bear them from some
depredations, certain species of planthopper,
small enough to squeeze between them and
slurp up sap, actually mimic their spiky
appearance to avoid predators.

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7 Spine
Stabbiness comes in handy when youre a plant
leaves (and the related stipules) have evolved to
draw blood, too. Many plants have spines, but
they are perhaps most memorably marshalled by
the cacti, who sport them in abundance. Spines
not only defend the juicy stems of cacti against
ravenous succulent-eaters, but also shade them

from the relentless desert sun. (Cacti that grow

in non-desert environs wear a lighter covering of
spines.)

6 Trichome
If youve ever had the misfortune of brushing against a
stinging nettle, you know the pain-inducing power of the tiny
trichome. Nettles and other plants grow a bristling fur of
these pointed structures to shield themselves from browsing.
Had the proverbial very hungry caterpillar made the mistake
of wandering onto a trichome-bearing plant, he wouldnt have
been hungry for much longer. He would have been impaled, or
eviscerated. Some plantslike the nettlehave associated
glands that inject poison into the trichome-inflicted wounds.
Some tropical nettles can cause permanent nerve damage
or death.

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5 Idioblast

Not all plants bear their defenses on the surface.

If thorns, spines, prickles, and trichomes are the
spear brigade, idioblasts are the landmines.
Specialized cells that contain a variety of
defensive compounds, from razor-sharp crystals
to pain-inducing chemicals, idioblasts detonate
when the first line of defense has been
breached. The dieffenbachia, a common

houseplant, contains idioblasts that fire barbed

calcium oxalate crystals into the mouths of
predators and then release an enzyme

analogous to reptilian venom. This can cause paralysisand thus loss of speechhence the
common name dumb cane.

4 Commensalism
Some plants have opted to hire mercenaries.
Several species of South American and African
acacia tree both house and feed aggressive
ants. The stinging little soldiers make their
barracks inside swollen thorns and feed off of
food bodies produced by the plant especially for
them. The ants savagely defend their giving

trees against all comers, be they animal,

vegetable, or fungus. They even snip off the
foliage of any other plants that have the nerve to

encroach upon their acacias personal space. In experiments where the ant colonies were
removed, the trees died.

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3 Crypsis

The sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica) closes its

leaves when they are touched, making them
appear dead and therefore unappetizing. These
plants are often sold as curiosities and featured

at botanical gardens. Watching plants react in

real-time serves as a visceral and memorable
demonstration of the fact that plants are, in fact,
animate. Erasmus Darwingrandfather of
Charlessaid in The Botanic Garden: [plants]
possess ideasofmany of the properties of the
external world, and of their own existence. Darwin may go a step too far here, but his
observations indicate that the notion of
plants as being in some way more than just lumps of
passive herbage is far from novel.

2 Chemical signaling
Plants that are attacked by browsers or insect
pests or subjected to stressful conditions such
as drought or microbial infection may warn other
plants of the impending crises by releasing
volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which
precipitate physiological reactions in nearby
plants. They may increase concentrations of
toxic compounds to ward off the enemy, or they
may release compounds of their own that attract
the enemys predators. Some recent experiments
have shown that plants also communicate

through chemicals released by their roots and

even via networks of fungal symbionts.

1 Poison
Everyone knows that some plants are poisonous.
But what constitutes a poison to one organism
may very well be an inert compound to another.
Birds, for example, are unfazed by urushiol, the
toxic oil produced by poison ivy, and in fact seem
to love the berries produced by the plants.

Monarch butterfly caterpillars chomp on

milkweed and sequester the glycosides

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produced by the plant in their own tissues,

making them poisonous to predators. Of course,
humans have turned all manner of plant poisons
to their own devious ends, from the
chrysanthemum-derived pyrethrins used as
insecticides to the castor bean-derived ricin,

which Walter White of Breaking Bad attempted to

use to eliminate his enemies on several
occasions (and which was successfully used in

the 1978 assassination of a Bulgarian writer).

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