As a short plant, life can be difficult. Shrimpier species are left to photosynthesize from whatever scraps are left in the sun. Many of us smaller humans have probably fantasized about shoving those noisy neighbors out of the way, but at least one ground-hugger has found a solution.
The first documented case of interspecies shoving in the botanical literature was reported in the journal Current Biology. The study authors were the first to measure the leaf's pushing power.
The tall elephant's foot is what the leaf is called. The plant's leaves are sent out in a circular pattern from the central stalks. There are mats on the forest floor of pine savannas in the US.
According to Sicangco, people think it's all grasses down there. There are a lot of different growth forms if you look harder.
Ms. Sicangco and Francis "Jack" Putz plucked a few elephant's feet from a savanna near Dr. Putz's house. Ms. Sicangco worked with professors at the university to design and 3-D-print a soil-mounted system that could be pushed against.
The device was placed next to a plant and left for a day. The lever was pushed away from its initial orientation when they came back. The force needed to lift a dime was measured by the scientists. The force that an elephant can deliver is about the same as the leaf. Dr. Putz suspected that the force came from the plant cells.
The aster was next grown by the scientists. The plant could bend up to 20 grass stalks with the help of its outer edges. The leaves of a single plant were as large as a square foot of soil.
Dr Putz and Ms. Sicangco were not the first to theorize about pushy plants. The possibility was once suggested in a book written by Karl Niklas. Talking about it and documenting it are not the same thing.
The view of plants is that they are peaceful. Most people think of plants as passive and pretty, but they actually have a number of strategies that show aggression.
There is a style of aggression exhibited by elephants. The rosette growth habit can be found all over the world, from the fynbos shrubland of South Africa to the dry grassland of Australia. It can be found in weeds such as dandelions and plantains, which are the bane of suburban homeowners. Dr. Putz said that growing low can help these plants avoid being eaten by animals, beheaded by lawnmowers or grazed by fire.
It's obvious that it's happening all over the place once you're aware of it. Your backyard is where it is.
Ecologists want to know how many plants coexist in the natural environment. Dozens of plant species share a small amount of space in prairies and savannas. Ecologists argue that fast-growing grasses aren't simply taking over. Ellen Damschen is an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies savannas similar to those where tall elephant's foot grows.
Dr. Damschen said that pushing behavior is likely helping it have a foothold in the larger environment.
She said she was not surprised to learn about it.
She said that plants can do more than we think. They don't get enough credit.
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