Interesting. I wish the weeds constantly infiltrating my yard would communicate when I mow that they need to stop sprouting there.
Come to think of it, wasn't there a
band named along that line?
I doubt Tolkien had any scientific basis for the recurring evidence of sentience of trees in the Old Forest and Fangorn, of course. And the communications in those cases were
conscious, and self-aware.
That said, I don't see the idea of low-level floral warnings as all that far fetched. It's seen time and again in insects as an instinctive response, as with bee and ant pheromones.