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Viburnum lesquereuxii leaf with insect damage; Dakota Sandstone (Cretaceous) of Ellsworth County, Kansas. Scale bar is 10 mm. Knowledge of herbivory in geological time comes from three sources: fossilized plants, which may preserve evidence of defense (such as spines) or herbivory-related damage; the observation of plant debris in fossilised animal feces; and the structure of herbivore mouthparts.
Phytotoxic substances may result from human activity, as with herbicides, or they may be produced by plants, by microorganisms, or by naturally occurring chemical reactions. The term is also used to describe toxic chemicals produced by plants themselves, which function as defensive agents against their predators.
Plants produce secondary metabolites known as allelochemicals. Rather than participating in basic metabolic processes, they mediate interactions between a plant and its environment, often attracting, repelling, or poisoning insects. [5] [6] They also help produce secondary cell wall components such as those that require amino acid modification. [7]
The toxins in poisonous plants affect herbivores, and deter them from consuming the plants. Plants cannot move to escape their predators, so they must have other means of protecting themselves from herbivorous animals. Some plants have physical defenses such as thorns, spines and prickles, but by far the most common type of protection is ...
[1] [2] The production of defensive chemicals occurs in plants, fungi, and bacteria, as well as invertebrate and vertebrate animals. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] The class of chemicals produced by organisms that are considered defensive may be considered in a strict sense to only apply to those aiding an organism in escaping herbivory or predation . [ 1 ]
It has been shown that plants can rapidly change behavior such as root growth, shoot growth, photosynthetic rate, and defense mechanisms in response to mycorrhizal colonization. [56] Through root systems and common mycorrhizal networks, plants are able to communicate with one another below ground and alter behaviors or even share nutrients ...
In large concentrations, auxins are often toxic to plants; they are most toxic to dicots and less so to monocots. Because of this property, synthetic auxin herbicides including 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) have been developed and used for weed control by defoliation.
Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. [1]A germination rate experiment. Plant physiologists study fundamental processes of plants, such as photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tropisms, nastic movements, photoperiodism, photomorphogenesis, circadian rhythms, environmental stress physiology, seed ...