Swarming behavior in plant roots

A paper published today in PLoS ONE shows that the roots of the plants behave in a manner not unlike by a flock of birds or a swarm of insects. Recent research has shown that plants are able to behave based on mutual social interaction with other individuals. More, It has been shown that plants can distinguish between self and non-self roots and that the sensory information collected by one plant is shared with neighboring plants to optimize territorial activities, including competitive behaviors and symbioses with fungi and bacteria. The discovery that plant roots are also able to show a swarming behavior is an exciting finding that open a new window on the complex strategies developed by plants. Here you can download the original paper