Plants can hear water and insects

It is believed that flowers grow better with classical music, and one of the first Metallica albums will be a real torture for your favorite orchids. Scientists are usually skeptical of such assumptions. But recent experiments have shown that flowers can actually perceive some sounds. The main thing is that these sounds should be vital for them. So they are unlikely to distinguish the bassoon from the trombone.

Water music

Recently, Monica Galliano, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Western Australia, and her colleagues conducted an interesting experiment. They planted peas in pots in the shape of an inverted letter Y. One "leg" of the pots was placed either in water or on a plastic pipe through which water flowed. The second "leg" was just dry soil.

In the photo: Description of the experiment

Moreover, if you give peas a choice between moist soil and a plastic water supply, he will always choose the first one. Monica Galliano believes that plants use sound waves to detect water at a great distance, but when they get closer to it, they are guided by soil moisture.

Leaves instead of ears

But water is not the only thing that causes the flora to "prick up its ears." A 2014 study found that Canadian arabidopsis can distinguish between the buzzing sounds of a caterpillar and wind vibrations. When a plant “heard” insects, it released more chemical toxins. The authors of the study found that the leaves are extremely sensitive to the slightest vibration. This is also indicated by the fact that a bee buzzing at a certain frequency stimulates the release of pollen from flowers.

In the photo: Arabidopsis

According to biologists, plants can have special organs that can perceive noise - mechanoreceptors. It can be very thin, hairy structures that act as a "tympanic membrane." So the phrase "and the trees have ears" can have the most serious reasons.

Now scientists want to find out if extraneous noise interferes with plants when, for example, they need to warn each other about insects. Perhaps new discoveries will make us more attentive to whether we interfere with flowers with our loud conversations.