Humans have glorious ways of vocalising discontent: We grumble, grouse, gripe, groan, moan. One might think airing complaints requires, at the very least, a mouth. But recent research from the plant kingdom shows that a mouth isn’t essential.
Stressed plants make audible sounds, and the type of sound corresponds with the kind of bad day they are having. The results were published last month in the journal Cell.
The researchers suspect a nervous, popping noise is a by-product of cavitation, when tiny bubbles burst and produce mini-shock waves inside the plant’s vascular system, not unlike what happens in your joints when you crack your knuckles.
Plants communicate with other life-forms, including other plants, by emitting chemicals, called volatiles. But when it came to research on plants detecting — or producing — audible sounds, the literature had been silent.
Lilach Hadany, a biologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel, worked with Yossi Yovel, who studies bat sounds, to tackle the subject. Tomato and tobacco plants were placed in soundproof boxes with two microphones pointing at their stems. The researchers found not only that the plants made sounds, but also that the plants made more noise when they were dehydrated or having their stems cut (simulating an herbivore attack).
“That the plants are making different noises that have some information seems like the main contribution of this study,” said Richard Karban, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved with the research. — DARREN INCORVAIA/NYT
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