The smell of cut grass has been identified as the plant's way of signalling distress.
It’s the smell of chemical defences and first aid. The fresh, “green” scent of a just-mowed lawn is the lawn trying to save itself from the injury you just inflicted.
When plants are under attack from lawnmowers, they release chemicals called green leaf volatiles to signal that there's trouble. They do the same when besieged by pests or disease, though the distress chemicals released in those cases are odourless and invisible to humans. However, a device that could detect these evasive SOS signals might be on the horizon, new research suggests.
