Plants have family values, too; it seems, with new
research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work
together.
An ability to tell family from strangers is well known
in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may
possess similar social skills, scientists believe.
Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in
Ontario, Canada, report they have demonstrated for the first time that plants
can recognize their kin.
This suggests that plants, though lacking recognition
and memory, are capable of complex social interactions.
“Plants have this kind of hidden but complicated
social life,” Dudley said.
The study found plants from the same species of beach-dwelling
wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less
competitive when they shared soil with their families.
Sea rocket, a North American species, showed stronger
and healthier root growth when planted in pots with strangers than when raised
with relatives from the same maternal(母系的) family, the
study found.
This is an example of kin selection, a behavior common
in animals in which closely related individuals take a group approach to
succeeding in their environment, the researchers said.
Kin selection also applies to competition, because if
family members compete less with each other, the group will do better overall.
“Everywhere you look, plants are growing right up next to other plants,” Dudley said,“ Usually
it’s a case of each plant for itself. But sometimes those plants are related,
and there are benefits to not wasting resources on being competitive, and there
is not really a cost to not being competitive as long as your neighbor is also
not being competitive.”
Learning and memory appear to be important for kin
recognition in animals, but this isn’t an option for plants, she noted.
Some researchers speculate(猜测) that plants communicate through their roots,
identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s
family.
1.What’s the main idea of the message?
A.Studies find
plants can recognize, communicate with relatives.
B.Kin selection
is important for plants.
C.Animals can
recognize and memorize their relatives.
D.Competition
asks plants to recognize their relatives.
2.Which of the following is NOT right about animals’
social skill?
A.Animals can
recognize and memorize their relatives.
B.Animals’ social skill is to cooperate and share resources.
C.Animals’ social skill can recognize close relatives in order
to work together.
D.Animals’ social skill is no use at all.
3.Plants’ kin selection is to ________.
A.grow well B.compete with
other kinds of plants
C.strengthen
the relationship among siblings D.find which one is the best
4.From the passage,we learn that
________.
A.sea rocket is
a South American species
B.sea rocket
grows aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors
C.sea rocket
grows aggressively alongside its siblings
D.sea rocket is
a kind of bush without flowers
5.How can the plants communicate with each other
according to experts’ suppose?
A.Plants
communicate by using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.
B.Plants
communicate with each other through their roots.
C.Plants
communicate with each other by their leaves.
D.Plants communicate
with each other with their flowers.