 Quote by g33kski11z
I came across this in a magazine and I'm skeptical about it. Does anyone have any evidence to support this or a link to the "studies' it references?
Per attachment: "We know that plants utilize biochemical signaling molecules to communicate, especially when a predator is nearby. But biologists have now discovered plants also communicate acoustically. Researchers observed uniform repetitive clicking sounds of about 220 MHz amount cereal plants. Clearly these plants can 'hear' these sounds because the noise influences the growth of their roots. But what these plants 'talk' about is still a mystery."
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How do they know that the sound influences the growth of their roots?
It "sounds" to me that they may have gotten it backwards. I can believe that the growth process in plants can generate sounds. Maybe when the roots grow, friction with the soil creates a low pitched sound. This sound would be analogous to the Aeolian tone when wind blows against the ground. Then the faster the growth, the louder the sound.
In this hypothesis, the growth of roots causes the sound. However, the sound does not influence the growth of roots.
If it is true the sound influences the growth of roots, then I don't see how. The plants don't have any known sensors that are specialized for listening to sound.
Chemical communication between plants seems a lot more plausible. The growth of plants is regulated by the diffusion of auxin. It appears to me even likely that plants would evolve to release auxin or auxin-like chemicals as a type of communication.
The hypothesis that plants communicate by sound may be wishful thinking on the part of people who talk to plants. It appears more likely a plant would respond to a persons body odor, or to their deodorants, than to sound. Plants have known sensitivities to chemicals. Yet, I have never heard of anyone putting on a certain perfume or deodorant for gardening.
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