Another category of plant defenses are those features that indirectly protect the plant by enhancing the probability of attracting the natural enemies of herbivores. Such an arrangement is known as mutualism, in this case of the "enemy of my enemy" variety. One such feature are semiochemicals, given off by plants. Semiochemicals are a group of volatile organic compounds involved in interactions between organisms. One group of semiochemicals are allelochemicals; consisting of allomones, which play a defensive role in interspecies communication, and kairomones, which are used by members of higher trophic levels to locate food sources. When a plant is attacked it releases allelochemics containing an abnormal ratio of these s (HIPVs). Predators sense these volatiles as food cues, attracting them to the damaged plant, and to feeding herbivores. The subsequent reduction in the number of herbivores confers a fitness benefit to the plant and demonstrates the indirect defensive capabilities of semiochemicals. Induced volatiles also have drawbacks, however; some studies have suggested that these volatiles attract herbivores. Crop domestication has increased yield sometimes at the expense of HIPV production. Orre Gordon et al 2013 tests several methods of artificially restoring the plant-predator partnership, by combining companion planting and synthetic predator attractants. They describe several strategies which work and several which do not.
Plants sometimes provide housing and food items for natural enemies of herbivores, known as "biotic" defense mechanisms, as a means to maintain their presence. For example, trees from the genus Macaranga have adapted their thin stem walls to create ideal housing for an ant species (genus Crematogaster), which, in turn, protects the plant from herbivores. In addition to providing housing, the plant also provides the ant with its exclusive food source; from the food bodies produced by the plant. Similarly, several Acacia tree species have developed stipular spines (direct defenses) that are swollen at the base, forming a hollow structure that provides housing for protective ants. These Acacia trees also produce nectar in extrafloral nectaries on their leaves as food for the ants.
Plant use of endophytic fungi in defense is common. Most plants have endophytes, microbial organisms that live within them. While some cause disease, others protect plants from herbivores and pathogenic microbes. Endophytes can help the plant by producing toxins harmful to other organisms that would attack the plant, such as alkaloid producing fungi which are common in grasses such as tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), which is infected by Neotyphodium coenophialum.
Trees of the same species form alliances with other tree species in order to improve their survival rate. They communicate and have dependent relationships through connections below the soil called underground mycorrhiza networks, which allows them to share water/nutrients and various signals for predatory attacks while also protecting its immune system. Within a forest of trees, the ones getting attacked send communication distress signals that alerts neighboring trees to alter their behavior (defense). The tree and fungi relationship is a symbiotic relationship. Fungi, intertwined with the trees roots, support communication between trees to locate nutrients. In return, the fungi receive some of the sugar that trees photosynthesize. Trees send out several forms of communication including chemical, hormonal, and slow pulsing electric signals. Farmers investigated the electrical signals between trees, using a voltage-based signal system, similar to an animals nervous system, where a tree faces distress and releases a warning signal to surrounding trees.