Plants are More Like Animals Than You Think

[Beestie]

There's a tree/bush in Africa that adjusts its toxicity according to the number of them left - the fewer there are the more toxic the remaining ones become.

This is a defense mechanism against the animals that eat them.

Apparently, they communicate with each other by means of a gas they emit. That's how they tell that their numbers are dwindling. Then they jack up their toxicity and the animals that eat them die and the remaining trees/bushes survive.

In a way, this insures the survival of both.

Absolutely fascinating.