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International researchers from Europe and North America examined 28 species of insects and 20 plant species in Chamela-Cuixmala, a tropical forest reserve on the western coast of Mexico.
It is said that trees, herbs and shrubs are known to communicate with each other by emitting odorous chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and these serve as vital information to plant-eating insects which can help them distinguish between edible and harmful plants.
Professor Phil Stevenson, senior research leader at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and co-author on the study, said, “Plants produce a profuse diversity of odour compounds, the natural chemicals that make plants smell.For some plants, like culinary herbs, these are distinct, we can easily distinguish oregano from rosemary by decoding the information (odours) they share, and specifically distinguishing the ones that make them smell different to other plants”
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