Pop! Snap! Groundbreaking study proves plants ‘talk’

In a new study, researchers proved that plants like cacti could "talk" using ultrasonic microphones.

You wouldn’t think it, but a field of flowers can be a pretty noisy place. Not because of the chirping birds or the buzzing bees… but because of the sounds the plants make themselves.

For the first time ever, Israeli researchers have been able to prove that plants do indeed make noise. They picked up the popcorn-like popping sounds – which are normally beyond the hearing range of the human ear – using ultrasonic microphones.

Prof. Lilach Hadany, who led the groundbreaking research. Courtesy

This discovery changes our understanding of the natural world, and there is much the researchers from Tel Aviv University have yet to understand. Specifically, who or what is listening to these noises, and why.

And with this discovery, there is the potential to monitor whether a plant is struggling against an unseen pathogen and prevent it from spreading to an entire field, without intrusive action. Farmers may also be able to more effectively water their crops and apply insecticides.

“Animals communicate all the time, making sounds and responding to sounds, so it would be quite silly and maladaptive for a plant to be completely deaf and mute,” Prof. Lilach Hadany, of the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, tells