Listen in as stressed plants pop off about their discomfort

If a plant is stressed but no one hears it, does it still make a sound? While that’s not quite the way the saying goes, researchers have discovered that the answer to the question is a resounding “yes.” By monitoring tomato and tobacco plants, they discovered that plants which are under stress – from conditions such as being cut or from having a lack of water – emit a series of popping sounds. Even though these sounds are produced at human conversational levels, they are emitted at a frequency too high for our own ears to pick up, although that’s likely not the case for insects and a range of other animals.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Listen in as stressed plants pop off about their discomfort

If a plant is stressed but no one hears it, does it still make a sound? While that’s not quite the way the saying goes, researchers have discovered that the answer to the question is a resounding “yes.” By monitoring tomato and tobacco plants, they discovered that plants which are under stress – from conditions such as being cut or from having a lack of water – emit a series of popping sounds. Even though these sounds are produced at human conversational levels, they are emitted at a frequency too high for our own ears to pick up, although that’s likely not the case for insects and a range of other animals.

more…

Triffids!

The sounds on the video are very similar to those described in the John Wyndham book “Day of the triffids”

It’s only a few weeks since I said (in my absurd way) that grass screams when it’s cut.

Please note that this sound is not detected by electronic ultrasonic bat detectors. So I don’t know what frequency it is …

(checks web)

… aah, now I see, ultrasonic sounds above about 110 kHz “are rapidly absorbed in air”. Which is why the microphones have to be so close to the plant in order to hear it.