Plants are known to react to different sounds, but do they produce their own?
It seems plausible that if plants react differently to different sounds that they might create sounds of their own. One woman claims that she has recorded sounds from the flowers in her own backyard.
Can you imagine it, having a silent orchestra in your backyard and not being able to hear it?
But what if you could capture every moment for your listening pleasure?
This woman claims that she has done exactly that
In a video that has gone viral, a woman records music from sunflowers with a type of microphone attached to a phone to capture the unearthly, yet beautiful sounds coming from the sunflowers in her garden.
After her discovery, she immediately posted her video, which has since gathered hundreds of thousands of views as of writing this.
It sounds majestic, almost angelic, like a beautiful horn section, or harps. It is somehow undefinable, yet it makes your hair stand on end.
One study claims that the role of sound in plants has yet to be fully explored,
“leaving serious gaps our current understanding of the sensory and communicatory complexity of these organisms.”
Dr. Gagliano, who is one of the researchers for the study was intrigued by the sensory reactions of plans so, as a scientist, she wanted to understand how
“it is very likely that some form of sensitivity to sound and vibrations also plays an important role in the life of plants.”
Some skeptics may find it difficult to believe in the video, or just discredit it as another internet hoax, but the study mentioned above, as well as several others, have uncovered some interesting findings.
Starting with detecting plant emotions that can be made visible using lie detector tests in a study all the way back in 1973 from the South African botanist Lyall Watson, to how plants communicate with each other using “clicks” and using powerful loudspeakers, the research continues on.
Researchers at The University of Western Australia were able to hear these clicking sounds coming from the roots of corn saplings.
The study was also conducted in Bristol University by one of Dr. Gagliano’s colleagues Professor Daniel Robert, where the researchers discovered that when they suspended young roots in water and exposed them to a continuous noise at 220Hz, (which is a similar frequency to the plant clicks) they found out that the plants grew towards the source of the sound.
Researchers also stated that these sound waves can be easily transmissible through soil and could be used to pick up threats like drought, insects, herbivores from neighboring plants, and even plants that are much further away.
However, seeing as how Dr. Gagliano said that she hoped the publication of her work would attract further funding for more research into how plants make and react to sounds, and seeing as how it might be still be a nearly unexplored aspect of botany, we may be some years away from finding out the truth.
