Do plants talk to each other using sound? That’s the surprising hypothesis put forward by researchers who have found that symbiotic relationships between plant species continue even when the two different types of plants are sealed off from each other with plastic, removing the possibility of chemical interactions. According to Monica Gagliano and Michael Renton of the University of Western Australia, “the answer may involve acoustic signals generated using nanomechanical oscillations from inside the cell which allow rapid communication between nearby plants.”
Over at Cosmic Log, Alan Boyle goes into detail. The acoustic hypothesis, he says…
…seems to fit with other findings on plant communication. Corn roots, for example, give off regular clicking sounds in the range of 220Hz (which corresponds to an A below middle C). Gagliano and her colleagues found that when young corn roots are suspended in water, they tend to lean toward the source of a continuous 220Hz tone transmitted through the water. The researchers suggested that acoustic signals could knit plants into an underground network of friends and foes.
But as Gagliano points out, no one has yet identified the precise mechanism by which one plant hears what another plant is saying. That’s one of the reasons why other researchers haven’t wholeheartedly embraced the idea that plants are talking to each other.
“Although the idea of plants communicating by sound is intriguing, there is still a long way to go before we know whether, and if so to whom, the woods sing!” the University of Leiden’s Carel ten Cate wrote last December in the journal Behavioral Ecology.
Link: “How plants respond to positive vibes: ‘Talking’ mechanism is a mystery“
