It started on a regular day in the lab, until I caught Sara in deep conversation with a tray of sunflower seedlings.
“You’re doing amazing, little ones! Keep growing!” she cooed, gently misting them with water.
I stared. “Wait… are you talking to the plants?”
She turned to me and said, “Of course, they need encouragement!”
I smirked. “And you, actually believe that helps?”
She crossed her arms. “You tell me, plant expert. Do they hear us or not?”
And just like that, I had a new mission: to find out if my friend had been whispering sweet nothings to deaf leaves or if there was actual science behind it.
Can Plants Really Hear?
Let’s get one thing out of the way, plants don’t have ears. They don’t eavesdrop on our conversations and certainly won’t perk up when you say, “Who’s a good little ficus?” But sound? That’s a different story.
Plants can sense vibrations in their environment, including those from sound waves. Think of it like this: when you feel bass thumping at a concert, your body doesn’t hear it the way your ears do, but you definitely sense the vibrations. For plants, sound is more like a physical force than a melody.
What is Sound? Sound is made of waves traveling through a medium (like air or water). These waves create vibrations, which some organisms, including plants, can detect. But unlike humans, plants don’t interpret these waves as words or music.
A study by Filippo Del Stabile and colleagues, “Is There a Role for Sound in Plants?” showed that certain sound frequencies can influence how plants grow. Specifically, their research suggests that plants respond to mechanical stimulation. Just like touching a plant can make it grow differently (a phenomenon called thigmomorphogenesis), sound waves might trigger similar responses.
Thigmomorphogenesis – A plant’s ability to change growth patterns in response to physical touch or mechanical stimulation, like wind or sound.
What’s Actually Happening?
So, if plants don’t have ears, how do they react to sound? The key lies in mechanoperception, a fancy way of saying plants can sense mechanical changes in their environment. Imagine wind rustling leaves or rain hitting the soil. Plants feel those forces and adjust their growth accordingly.
Mechanoperception – The process by which plants detect mechanical forces (like vibrations from sound waves) and respond at the cellular level
In the same way, sound waves create tiny vibrations that might influence plant cells. Research has shown that certain frequencies can activate genes involved in growth and stress responses. For example:
- A study in Natural Products and Bioprospecting showed that sound waves stimulated production of a variety of plant secondary metabolites, including flavonoids, in order to enhance seed germination, flowering, growth or defense.
- In Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces journal, researchers discovered that sound stimulation (1000 Hz) can increase the activity of protective enzymes like peroxidase, which helps plants grow efficiently.
This means that while plants won’t recognize words, they do react to physical forces, like sound waves, hitting them.
Do Kind Words Help Plants Grow?
Here’s where science and human nature collide. While certain sounds can influence plant physiology, there’s no scientific proof that whispering compliments to your pothos will make it grow faster (or that yelling at your basil will send it into a crisis).
Unlike humans and animals, who experience emotional responses through chemicals like oxytocin (the “love hormone”), plants operate purely through biochemical processes. They care about light, water, nutrients, and temperature, not your motivational speeches.
Do Plants Have Feelings? Nope! Plants don’t have a brain or a nervous system, which means they don’t experience emotions, pain, or consciousness. They respond to stimuli in their environment, but it’s all biochemical, not emotional.
So, while my tomato plant doesn’t care if I call it “sweetie”, it does care if I remember to water it.
Should You Keep Talking to Your Plants?
Absolutely! Not because they’re secretly absorbing your words, but because talking to plants makes you feel good. It fosters mindfulness, helps you connect with nature, and who knows, your voice’s vibrations might be doing something.
Filippo Del Stabile’s study suggests that while plants don’t “listen” like we do, they might be subtly influenced by sound waves. Could specific sounds boost crop yields? Science is still uncovering the answers.
So, in the meantime, go ahead, and talk to your plants. Just don’t expect them to gossip back.
Written by: Dr. Reshma Patil
