Talking to Plants?

A commentary starting with the question "Is communication possible between trees and people?" is always going to take logic into some strange areas (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/28/branching-out-is-communication-possible-between-trees-and-people). The commentary asserts that plants communicate with eachother perhaps via their root systems. The claim is also made that humans often feel relaxed in the presence of trees. The plants produce chemical and electrical emissions, we might detect (whether we hug them or not). Frantisek Baluska (Bonn University) is of the opinion that plants are 'intelligent'. He claims they process information and make 'decisions' based on what they have 'learned'. Baluska and his team did some experiments on plants with moving parts, like the Venus flytrap. The flytrap lives in nitrogen-deficient locations (bogs). It has a touch-operated mechanism, used to trap and digest insects (with nitrogen in their proteins). Baluska sedated the plants with anaesthetics noting that the plants ceased to respond to flies (although their trigger mechanism involves neither nerves nor a brain). The plants resumed their former activities, when the sedative 'wore off'. I'm not sure what this tells us about the possibility of our communicating with plants. There are, however, two unanswered questions. The first is, why should plants generally bother to talk to animals (including humans), when most animals are essentially plant killers and/or damagers? Plants do, of course, develop protections against some animal species, using stings, spines and chemical defences. The animals they communicate with (usually via 'bribes') are needed for processes like pollination or seed dispersal. The second is, if plants really are intelligent organisms, doesn't this negate the prime vegan rationale for their dietary choices? I appreciate that, if plants and animals were both 'off-limits', there wouldn't be much to eat (even fungi 'communicate')!