It is speculated that plants can understand and interpret sounds, at wavelengths beyond our capacities. Specific sounds have proven to speed the growth of certain plants – binaural sounds (which are essentially two separate frequencies playing from opposing sides), sounds found in their natural environments, and even white noise – have been shown to positively affect the plant.
Sternheimer composes musical note sequences which help plants grow and has applied for an international patent covering the concept. The sound sequences are not random but are carefully constructed melodies. Each note is chosen to correspond to an amino acid in a protein with the full tune corresponding to the entire protein. What this means is that the sounds sequenced in just the right order results in a tune which is unique and harmonizes with the internal structure of a specific plant type. Each plant type has a different sequence of notes to stimulate its growth.
A research on impatiens and beans was conducted in order to show the effect of sound on plant growth, as well as to see any correlations to the size of the plant. It was found that when the wavelength of the sound waves coincided with the dimensions of the leaf, the effect was the greatest. Essentially, air particles vibrate and move along the surface of the leaf, making a scrubbing action, removing water particles from the surface of the leaf. This allowed the plant to breathe better. Pure tones as well as random noise were used, random noise being detrimental to the growth of the beans.
It’s now well established that when bugs chew leaves, plants respond by releasing volatile organic compounds into the air. By Karban’s last count, 40 out of 48 studies of plant communication confirm that other plants detect these airborne signals and ramp up their production of chemical weapons or other defense mechanisms in response.
Just a few months ago, the plant signaling pioneer Ted Farmer of the University of Lausanne discovered an almost entirely unrecognized way that plants transmit information — with electrical pulses and a system of voltage-based signaling that is eerily reminiscent of the animal nervous system.
Plants can communicate with insects as well, sending airborne messages that act as distress signals to predatory insects that kill herbivores.
The idea that plants communicate with each other is normally based in science-fiction or fantasy, but new research out of The University of Western Australia reveals that this actually may be the case. UWA Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Monica Gagliano has discovered that our green friends not only react to sounds, but they can also communicate with each other via “clicking noises.”
Gardeners have long believed that what music they play affects the growth of their plants, but Dr. Gagliano’s research, done with colleagues Professor Daniel Robert at the University of Bristol (UK) and Professor Stefano Mancuso at the University of Florence (Italy), shows that the roots of young plants emit and react to particular sounds.
While mushrooms might be the most familiar part of a fungus, most of their bodies are made up of a mass of thin threads, known as a mycelium. We now know that these threads act as a kind of underground internet, linking the roots of different plants. That tree in your garden is probably hooked up to a bush several metres away, thanks to mycelia.
Around 90% of land plants are in mutually-beneficial relationships with fungi. The 19th-century German biologist Albert Bernard Frank coined the word “mycorrhiza” to describe these partnerships, in which the fungus colonises the roots of the plant.
A new study conducted by Dr. David Johnson at the University of Aberdeen found that plants actually communicate with one another through the soil. The study shows that when vegetables are infected with certain diseases, they alert other nearby plants to activate genes to ward off the disease when it heads their way. The key to this communication is a soil fungus that acts as a messenger.
When you inhale the sweet smell of freshly mown grass or cut flowers, what you’re actually smelling is the plant’s distress call. It’s the plant’s way of crying out for help.
The invasive knapweed plant—native to Eastern Europe but wrecking havoc on U.S. grasslands—has roots that release certain chemicals to help the plant take in nutrients from the soil. Those same chemicals also kill off native grasses. Thus, the knapweed ends up taking over large territories and killing off its competitors, much like some animals do. Some plants, however, have formed a defense. Lupin roots secrete oxalic acid, which forms a protective barrier against the toxic chemicals given off by knapweed. Lupin can even protect other plants in its vicinity from falling prey to the invasive species.
Plants go out of their way to attract more than just insects. A carnivorous pitcher plant native to Borneo has evolved to hijack bat communication systems, turning the bats’ echolocation to its advantage. According to a new study in Current Biology, Nepenthes hemsleyan has a concave structure that is specially suited to reflect bat echolocation, helping the bats find the plant.
BMC Ecology researchers report a new type of mechanism that some plants use to communicate. The team planted common chili pepper seeds (Capsicum annuum) near a basil plant, with barriers that prevented the basil from deploying its usual growth-promoting tricks. Despite the separation, chili seeds germinated faster when basil was a neighbor, suggesting that a message was getting through. Because light, touch, and chemical “smell” were ruled out, the team proposes that the finding points to a new type of communication between plants, possibly involving nanoscale sound waves, traveling through the dirt to bring encouraging “words” to the growing seeds.
https://www.wired.com/2013/12/secret-language-of-plants/
https://inhabitat.com/plants-can-talk-to-each-other-by-clicking-their-roots/
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet
https://inhabitat.com/plants-talk-to-each-other-through-a-messenger-in-the-soil/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/66302/5-ways-plants-communicate
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/plants-talk-to-each-other-nanoscale-sound-waves-grow_n_3229021
On the 29th of November, students of the Ecocentric project took a short trip to Avalahalli forest which is about 30 minutes away from college campus.
The Ragi pods are easily recognizable, as they come off in brown clumps, and by rolling the pods in one’s hands, one is able to extract the Ragi easily.
Then, we collected all the waste that lay around in a plastic bag. Although this was forest/agricultural land, the reach of humans was still evident by the large amounts of plastic left behind. We continued to carry plastic all through our walk.
We headed towards a dense growth of Eucalyptus trees, where we gathered and discussed certain patterns and facts of the forest that we had observed.
