Did a bit of reading

The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger has been pretty interesting so far. Honestly, the thing that struck me most was the "personality differences" of plants within the same species. Plants produce pheromones when stressed or injured, you see. It was originally thought these pheromones mainly existed to send signals to other parts of the plant's own body, but research has accumulated showing that these pheromones also alert other plants of the same species to the existence of predators, causing them to respond pre-emptively with chemical defenses. Plants can also send out chemical signals that only their "family" - the individuals genetically closest to them - can understand. Plants seemingly choose to prioritize warning only family during times of low crisis, while alerting the entire "community" about herbivore attacks during times of severe stress.

(The simplest defense is producing chemicals that taste bad or are poisonous to herbivores, amping up the dose the more severe the munching becomes. Some specific species produce pheromones that attract natural predators of their attackers, such as parasitic wasps that kill caterpillars. And tomato plants can even push the animals eating them to start cannibalizing each other instead.)

Whether it's a family-only signal or a species-wide signal, plants are less likely to respond to signals from an indvidual who gives out these chemical warnings constantly, while doubling down on defenses with especial intensity when receiving warnings from individuals who rarely release these pheromones. This mirrors findings in chipmunks - when a skittish, easily frightened chimpunk lets out an alarm screech, other chipmunks rarely respond as though a predator is actually nearby. When a chimpunk who is bold and risk-taking lets out a predator alarm screech, other chipmunks respond to the warning with especially great urgency.