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Of course, neighboring plants in natural communities interact: we usually think of plants competing for sunlight and soil nutrients. Few topics in plant ecology have inspired so much excitement and controversy, however, as communication between plants. The idea, simply put, is that rooted and immobile plants might act to increase their levels of defense by responding to cues from neighbors that are being attacked by herbivores or pathogens. As some authors have suggested, perhaps ‘listening trees ’ is a better descriptor than ‘talking trees’, but, in either case, the interaction holds unquestionably fascinating natural history