Everything is energy. Plants, animals, humans, even the table my computer is sitting on! It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole with this topic, but for the sake of keeping on track, let’s just stick with the notion that it isn’t too unbelievable to believe that everything is living; and, everything that is living creates sound. Just because humans can’t hear it that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
Consider this: plants grow roots, they pick up and carry water from far below the surface up to the stem and down through the branches. They unfold leaves, and bloom buds, which then turn into blossoms. All these things require power and a force to create a vibrational frequency that translates into some kind of sound. Does that sound about right?
It’s a lot to think about. In the meantime, this video shows a woman in her backyard standing beside a fully grown mature sunflower. Hooked up to the leaf of the plant is a high-end microphone that’s able to pick up on the sounds emitted from the sunflower. It sounds like a high pitched, angelic harp. A happy, haunting, suspenseful sound that’s equal parts mesmerizing and beautiful. It reminds me of a Tibetan singing bowl!
While the jury is still out on whether or not plants do in fact create sounds, there are scientists and researchers delving deeper into matters. New research at The University of Western Australia has discovered that plants appear to react to sounds, and may even make clicking noises to communicate with each other.
Dr. Monica Gagliano, a lead researcher in the study of UWA’s Centre of Evolutionary Biology at the School of Animal Biology, says, “Everyone knows that plants react to light, and scientists also know that plants use volatile chemicals to communicate with each other, for instance, when danger – such as an herbivore – approaches.” She and her team have also established that the young roots of corn produce clicking sounds. When suspended in water, if the roots were near a source emitting continuous sound around the 200Hz mark, the roots would lean towards where the sound was coming from. Interestingly enough, it’s the same frequency range that the roots emitted – clicked – themselves.
Dr. Gagliano also noted that it’s not too far out to believe that plants would be capable of exhibiting behavior like this, if only for the simple and basic fact that they need to locate water to survive. “It is very likely that some form of sensitivity to sound and vibrations also plays an important role in the life of plants.” It’s a whole other language we have yet to crack and understand.
Click on the video below to hear the singing sunflower in all her glory!
