Plant Communication

It has long been thought that plants can and do respond to verbal stimuli, also that they can communicate with one another. Heck, even the MythBusters got into the act a few years back and did their own specialized type of “experimentation” on whether plants respond to verbal stimuli from their human caretakers. Their findings were, unsurprisingly, inconclusive. Once again the theory that plants can communicate is being tested by a group of British, Italian and Spanish researchers who are working on developing a network of micro-sensors that can be embedded in plants in order to get information on how plants might respond to changes in their environment; changes such as chemicals, humidity, pollution and temperature. The sensors tap into the plants electrical signals and decipher what the plants are communicating about their environment. Ok, it’s not like you will soon be able to openly communicate with your houseplants, but this a project that could help everyone from backyard gardeners to farmers understand what makes their plants tick. With such knowledge farmers soon might be able to incorporate ag practices that help plants to naturally protect themselves against attack.