What do you think of this fact?
Plants don’t have mouths, lungs or vocal cords. They still make noise when things go badly. A team at Tel Aviv University recorded it, and the result sounds a bit like popcorn popping.
A quiet basement and some very good microphones
The researchers placed ultrasonic microphones about 10 centimeters from tomato and tobacco plants, first in an acoustic box in a quiet, isolated basement. Some plants went five days without water, some had their stems cut, and some were left alone.
The difference was clear. Unstressed plants emitted fewer than one sound per hour on average. A single stressed plant, according to Sci.News, made around 30 to 50 clicks per hour at frequencies of 40 to 80 kilohertz. Adult humans hear up to about 16 kilohertz, so to you the room stays silent, even though the clicks are about as loud as human speech.
Every plant has its own sound
Machine learning algorithms could tell from the recordings alone which plant was making the sound and whether it was dehydrated or cut. That even worked in a noisy greenhouse. The team also recorded other species, including wheat, corn, cactus and henbit. The study appeared in the journal Cell in 2023.
Where does the sound come from? That isn’t settled yet. The authors suggest it might be air bubbles forming and bursting in the plant’s vascular system, a process called cavitation.
Bonus fact: According to Tel Aviv University, bats, mice and insects could probably hear these clicks, and maybe even other plants.
Study leader Lilach Hadany summed it up: “Apparently, an idyllic field of flowers can be a rather noisy place.” Your houseplant on the windowsill might be less quiet than it looks.