Can Plants Hear?

While plants being able to hear sounds like a false science, new studies suggest certain kinds of plants are able to detect the sound of water flowing, and the sound of insects buzzing. At the University of Western Australia, Monica Gagliano conducted an experiment with her colleagues where she placed seeds in pots, that were then hung upside down. The purpose of the experiment was to see if placing one root towards flowing water, and one in a regular environment, would affect which way the root would grow. One arm of the root was placed in a tray of water that had a water flowing tube, the other arm was placed in dry soil. The results ended up showing that the plant always grew towards the tube of flowing water, even if it was more difficult to grow in that direction. When the plants were given the option between the flowing tube of water, and moist soil, the roots went towards the easier route and grew towards the moist soil. Galiano's conclusion was that the plants only used sound waves to detect water when it was at a distance and didn't have another source of water, but would choose whatever was closer when water in the ground was an option. Other studies that suggested plants could detect sound were by Heidi Appel at the University of Toledo, who noticed plants created more chemical toxins after "hearing" a recording of feeding caterpillars. Micheal Schoner at the University of Greifswald in Germany believes that plants could have hairy membrane structures that can perceive noises.

While the idea that plants can detect sound may be pseudoscience, I think the concept of plants being able to hear is interesting and that is why I chose this article. Plants are more complex than most people think, and proving that they can hear would support how complex plants are. Not to mention that there would be a lot of fun experiments that could come from testing plants reactions to sound. It would be interesting to test multiple different sounds and see how the plant reacts. What do you think? Do you think plants can hear buzzing, and water flow? Or do you think it's pseudoscience? And if they can hear, what experiments would you want to conduct?

References:

Zaraska, Marta. "Can Plants Hear? ScientificAmerican. (May 2017)
 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-plants-hear/