Plants that Defend Themselves.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 25, Issue 40, 26 May 1914, Page 2

Plants that Defend Themselves.

Plants have to defend themselves from their enemies in the same way as men. They have to fight with each other for room enough in the soil to live, and the weaker plants often go under in the struggle for existence. The battles of plants, however, are mainly fought against the animals and insects which are always threatening to destroy them.

PLANTS ARM 131) WITH BAYONETS

Many plants have wonderful weapons for their protection. The thorns of the rose bush, bramble, and gorse prevent cows and horses from eating them, as well as keeping off snails and slugs. The cactus family of plants have a formidable armour of prickles and daggers. The plant known as the Spanish bayonet is armed with taper-pointed spears that have file-fike edges. Some plants, such as the ragged robin, have sticky stems covered with fine hairs to which insects stick if they climb up to try and steal the honey.

J Many plants use poison as a | means of protection. The sun spurge has a poisonous juice which kills any insects which approach it, whilst the poisonous properties of the deadly nightshade are well known. The bracken fern has such a bitter taste that cows and sheep feeding near it will not touch it, and the leaves of the buttercup have a bitter taste which is much disliked by plant-eating animals. •plant THAT CATCHES FISH. The common bladder wort, an aquatic plant, not only defends itself against insects and animals, but catches worms and fish for its food. As it floats underneath. the surface of the water its leafy branches spread out in all directions. Its leaves are covered with little oval bladders filled with air, and at one end of each bladder is a cavity which leads into the mouth below. Inside the bladder is a small trap-door which opens when pressure is put upon it. A small worm or a small fish can enter this door, but they can never come out.

Perhaps the most original means of self-defence is that possessed by a strange plant called the rattlesnake iris, which grows on the prairies of America. When ripe its seeds give a rattling noise very similar to that made by a rattlesnake. This is greatly feared by animals, who will never go near the plant.