 
Defense Strategies in Plants-1
 Plants
also have to defend themselves from their enemies in certain
ways. This defense varies with the species. For example, some
plants give off diverse secretions against parasites and insects
and fight their enemies that way. They display a wide variety
of strategies in using these poisonous chemical secretions,
which is their number one weapon. For example, toadstools
and cucumbers have poisonous tips, and these go into operation
at the moment of attack. Another example of this fully equipped
war is found in plane trees. With the help of a special liquid
which it exudes from its leaves, the plane tree systematically
poisons the soil under its trunk, so much so that not even
the smallest blade of grass can grow in it. Although it contains
this poisonous material within its own body, the plane tree
itself is not harmed by it.
Plants, which have no legs to carry them away if they are
attacked and no organs to fight with, have many defense mechanisms
which respond to their enemies other than their secretions.
There is even the ability to communicate within these mechanisms.
Some plants give off a secretion from the place where they
are bitten, harming an insect's digestive system or giving
it a false feeling of fullness. At the same time, the leaf
gives off a kind of acid, known as jasmonic acid from the
damaged part, thus warning other leaves so that they can be
on the defensive.
These properties in plants are defense systems specially
created by God. Our Lord, Who plans all things down to the
finest detail, has created all plants on Earth together with
all the details they require for their survival. God is He
Who creates all things from nothing, the flawless Creator.
In one verse it is revealed that:
"He directs the whole affair from
heaven to Earth..." (Qur'an, 32:5)
 To defend
themselves, corn and bean plants use parasitic wasps just
like mercenaries. When a caterpillar visits their leaves,
these plants draw wasps to the spot by giving off a special
secretion. The wasps then leave their larvae on the caterpillars
which have attacked the plant. The growing larvae then cause
the death of the caterpillar, thus rescuing the plant. Some
plants contain allelochemicals, that is, toxis compounds in
their structures. These have effects which are sometimes attractive
to animals and insects, sometimes frightening, sometimes causing
allergic reactions, and sometimes lethal.
For example, butterflies avoid plants of the group cruciferae
(the mustards) cannot approach heather plants, because their
flowers contain a toxic substance called sinigrin in their
defense mechanisms. For this reason, butterflies forage avidly
among the umbelliferae, because they know that these do not
carry poison. How butterflies could have learned to distinguish
between them is also a question awaiting an answer. It is
impossible for the butterfly to have learned this from experience.
Tasting the plant could mean the butterfly's death. In that
case, the butterfly must come by this information in some
other way.
 Sugar
Maples
Maples', and particularly sugar maples', defense planning
for the protection of their leaves and shoots from harmful
living creatures is usually much more effective than the insecticides
human beings produce. Although the sugar maple has very sugary
water in its trunk, it sends a substance called "tannin"
to its leaves. This is a substance which makes insects ill.
Insects, having eaten the leaves containing tannin, go up
to the uppermost leaves, which contain less tannin, to escape.
But the uppermost leaves are where birds go most. The insects
which flee there are then hunted by birds. Thanks to this
strategy, the sugar maple is saved from the depredations of
insects with little harm done.
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