Plant bill of rights?

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences delivered the following bizarre piece of news. Apparently, plants are much more capable for interacting efficiently with its animated environment than you would expect:

Another Challenge for Ethical Eating - Plants Want to Live, Too [NYTimes.com, 23 Dec 2009]

Certain plants can sense when insect eggs have been deposited on their leaves and will act immediately to rid themselves of the incubating menace. ... when a female cabbage butterfly lays her eggs on a brussels sprout plant and attaches her treasures to the leaves with tiny dabs of glue, the vigilant vegetable detects the presence of a simple additive in the glue, benzyl cyanide. Cued by the additive, the plant swiftly alters the chemistry of its leaf surface to beckon female parasitic wasps. Spying the anchored bounty, the female wasps in turn inject their eggs inside, the gestating wasps feed on the gestating butterflies, and the plant’s problem is solved.

Here’s the lurid Edgar Allan Poetry of it: that benzyl cyanide tip-off had been donated to the female butterfly by the male during mating. “It’s an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone, so that the female wouldn’t mate anymore,” Dr. Hilker said. “The male is trying to ensure his paternity, but he ends up endangering his own offspring.”