Study reveals plants ‘listen’ to find sources of water

Credit: University of Western Australia — In the study "Tuned in: plant roots use sound to locate water" published in Oecologia, UWA researchers found that plants can sense sound vibrations from running water moving through pipes or in the soil, to help their roots move towards the source of water. The study also revealed that plants do not like certain noises and will move away from particular sounds.

Lead researcher Dr Monica Gagliano, from UWA’s Centre of Evolutionary Biology at the School of Animal Biology, said water was a basic need for a plant’s survival, and the study showed sound plays a significant role in helping plants meet this need. "We used the common garden pea plant (Pisum sativum) as the model for our study and put the plant into a container which had two tubes at the base, giving it a choice of two directions for the growth of its roots. "We then exposed the plant to a series of sounds, including white noise, running water and then a recording of running water under each tube, and observed its behaviour. The scientists found that the plants could tell where the source of the water was and […]

Full article: Study reveals plants ‘listen’ to find sources of water

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