The hairs on tomato plants are actually tiny pest traps
Jalal Research Group / University of Amsterdam
For hungry insects, walking along a tomato rod in search of a green meal can be like navigating in a mines field.
Jared Popowski at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands was trying to measure the mechanical properties of tomato plants in the laboratory. Then, a tiny hair on one of the stems began to ooze the liquid – and it happened so quickly that her camera barely caught her. He had inadvertently triggered one of the plants Anti-sampling protection mechanisms.
