Thirsty tomatoes emit ultrasonic sounds – and other plants may be listening

Error message

Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$ds_changed in eval() (line 16 of /var/www/7/modules/php/php.module(80) : eval()'d code).
Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$ss_search_api_url in eval() (line 20 of /var/www/7/modules/php/php.module(80) : eval()'d code).
Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$tm_title in eval() (line 20 of /var/www/7/modules/php/php.module(80) : eval()'d code).

Plants may appear silent, indifferent organisms to us, but recent research has found they make high-pitched clicking sounds when they are struggling to find water.

Metadata

Provider:

The Conversation

URL:

https://theconversation.com/thirsty-tomatoes-emit-ultrasonic-sounds-and-other-plants-may-be-listening-204637

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Information

Tags:

Communication, Conversation, Bee, Atmosphere, Water, The Conversation, Seedling, Flower, Pollen, Plant, Research, Tobacco, Fruit, Science, Germination, Animal, Soil, Hearing, Dog, Lifting, Cat, MITES, Growth, Environment, Disease, Egg, Agriculture, Cassette tape, Perfume, Arabidopsis

Summary

Key Points:

Plants may appear silent, indifferent organisms to us, but recent research has found they make high-pitched clicking sounds when they are struggling to find water.
Scientists in Israel record brief pulses of sound coming from tobacco and tomato plants in a greenhouse.
They happened more often when the plants had not been watered or at times when they were losing large amounts of water from their leaves.
Instead, the sounds may be due to bubbles forming in the plants’ stems in a simple physical process.
This means that even if they aren’t intentional, the clicks could carry information useful to other plants or animals.

A different world

In fact, there are many examples of plants sharing information with other plants and with animals.
Bumblebees can even distinguish between different floral scent patterns.
Many plants also release airborne chemicals that warn their neighbours when they are attacked by disease or insects.
Perhaps in a similar way, listening for these sounds of water stress could help other plants to adapt to their environment.