According to the study published in the research journal “The Cell”, botanists have revealed that plants are not “silent creatures” contrary to what is known.
“There are so many organisms that respond to sound, so I thought we had no good reason to believe plants were deaf and dumb,” Professor Lilach Hadany, Dean of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Science, told CNN.
Hadany, who first recorded the sound of a cactus using an ultrasonic microphone in his laboratory 6 years ago, said he was not sure whether the sound he recorded was coming from the cactus or something else in the environment.
Stating that it was known before that plants create vibrations, but there is no evidence that this transforms into sound waves propagating in the air, Hadany noted that he and his team worked in soundproof acoustic boxes.
The team, which placed ultrasonic microphones that can detect sounds between 20 and 250 kilohertz, in boxes where they put tobacco and tomato seedlings, cut certain parts of some plants, left some without water, and others did not touch them at all.
The team then recorded sounds between 40 and 80 kilohertz, inaudible to the human ear. The team reported that these resembled the sound of popping corn.
In addition, the team found that plants under stress produce more sound.