Sound emiting plants

[MateoinLosAngeles]

I bet by now most of you have read this article on The New York Times that has been the talk of the town on social media This Is What It Sounds Like When Plants Cry - The New York Times

Most of us talk about what a plant “likes,” and even slow growing plants seem to give enough cues about what they’re experiencing for us to understand. Effectively creating interspecies communication.

This article made me think about whether sound plays a role in pollination. Apparently these sounds happen in frequencies that can be heard by mice and moths from 16 feet. If we could hear those frequencies, the volume would be equivalent to that of a normal conversation.

When you look at the column in a Phalaenopsis flower and see those distinctive dots that look like eyes, or when you look at orchids of the genus Ophrys, looking exactly like bees, it’s hard not to speculate that in addition to scent and appearance, sound may potentially play a role.

I hope they keep researching this stuff.

[Paphluvr]

If you found this subject interesting you should look up articles on what plants look like under ultraviolet light. Insects see in a different part of the spectrum than we humans do.

[tmoney]

our senses are soooo limited. we don't know what we don't know! i played a super old cd for my students the other day, one i used to listen to in middle school. it was the cycles per second sequence of the bass frequencies (you can find it on youtube). we couldn't hear anything for about the first 10-20 seconds, and then the young middle schoolers could hear sounds for several cycles after i stopped hearing them. those notes were on the high end of the freq spectrum.

and also, yes, kids freak out when they "see" how insects see flowers in different spectrums. those pictures are fascinating

[Leafmite]

How funny that there might actually be a logical explanation for why I sometimes feel a strong urge to water my plants when they need watered. I used to joke that it was as if they were calling to me....

[RJSquirrel]

Stressed plants make ultrasonic clicking noises

[katsucats]

I felt like this was non-news when I read it. It shouldn't escape imagination that dry material rubbing against each other makes more noise than pliable, dampened material. Some of the reporting made it out like the plants were "consciously" emitting the noise, but that's not what the study suggested at all.

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by katsucats

I felt like this was non-news when I read it. It shouldn't escape imagination that dry material rubbing against each other makes more noise than pliable, dampened material. Some of the reporting made it out like the plants were "consciously" emitting the noise, but that's not what the study suggested at all.

The way that I took it is that the study found a correlation between sound and whatever the plant was experiencing, thus opening the door to use sound the same way we use color, smell, movement (e.g. speed of growth) to try to understand what a plant is going through.

As far as information is transmitted and processed between two living beings that entails communication. However, that doesn’t imply the communication is intentional, nor that the beings are sentient.

I do find that orchids and their ability to use deception for pollination is extremely interesting. It can’t be fully intentional, otherwise they wouldn’t bloom for us where no pollinators can be found, but we don’t know how much information plants can process and make “intentional” or “conscious” decisions on, their intention or consciousness might not be related to “thought” but that doesn’t mean they’re simple automations.