My university botany lecturers at uni would probably be surprised to hear that any of their teaching had stuck in my mind, but some did. One enduring impression is that plants are very complex organisms and that humans probably don’t recognise the diversity of and precision of their survival mechanisms. Here’s some more evidence.

Smoking tobacco is not good for you. Chewing tobacco is also unwise, especially if you are a tobacco hornworm caterpillar. A quick nibble on a tasty tobacco leaf will trigger an emergency response from the tobacco plant that calls in some serious reinforcements. More . . .