They gossip and lie to each other: it turns out that plants are quite malicious beings.

Scientists believe that plants deceive each other about impending threats and may intentionally refrain from signaling distress to harm their neighbors, as reported by LiveScience.

"Plants can benefit from false alarm signals, as it harms their nearby competitors by forcing them to invest in costly herbivore defense mechanisms. Our findings indicate that plants are more likely to deceive their neighbors than to behave altruistically," says lead author Thomas Scott, an evolutionary theorist from the University of Oxford.

Previous studies have shown that when one plant is attacked by herbivores or disease, neighboring plants activate their defense responses. Often, they produce biochemical compounds that make the plants toxic or unpalatable. Such defenses are quite energy-intensive for the plants themselves, which is why this mechanism is triggered only in extreme circumstances.

However, in the plant world, friendship with neighbors makes little evolutionary sense, as plants compete with one another for sunlight and nutrients.

The researchers modeled the evolutionary plausibility of altruistic behaviors in plants and compared this to the likelihood of sending these signals for other reasons. Their mathematical models examined various hypothetical scenarios to identify situations that would prompt them to warn neighbors about an attack.

The results showed that it is more advantageous for plants to lie about an attack by sending false distress signals to deceive their neighbors, forcing them to expend valuable resources.

According to the scientists, plants communicate through an extensive underground fungal network that connects their roots, known as the mycorrhizal network. Between 80% and 90% of all plant species are linked through this mycorrhizal network.

These fungi form symbiotic partnerships with plant roots, providing nutrients to the plants while receiving food produced by the plants through photosynthesis. The statement suggests that information about plant resources may be transmitted through these networks.

The team proposes two possibilities for why the previously observed distress signals from plants may have arisen. The first is that plants emit an involuntary signal that they cannot suppress—similar to blushing in humans—which is overheard by neighboring plants.

"Perhaps, like gossiping neighbors, one plant simply overhears another," says co-author Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Fungi in the mycorrhizal network might also communicate an attack to other nearby plants, as it benefits the network if all plants are protected.

Recall that the conversation between plants was shown for the first time. Researchers captured on camera how neighboring plants communicate with each other in a very original way.