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Plants Really Do 'Scream'. We've Simply Never Heard Them Until Now (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 5 days ago by rikudou@lemmings.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION@lemmy.world 178 points 5 days ago

By contrast, stressed plants are much noisier, emitting an average up to around 40 clicks per hour depending on the species. And plants deprived of water have a noticeable sound profile. They start clicking more before they show visible signs of dehydrating, escalating as the plant grows more parched, before subsiding as the plant withers away.

someone smarter than me should get to inventing a device that listens to plant clicks and tells you when it needs water

[-] rikudou@lemmings.world 75 points 5 days ago

That's actually mentioned as one possible use case further down the article!

[-] scytale@lemm.ee 66 points 5 days ago

Might be a good use-case to have your home irrigation system be triggered by plant clicks instead of a schedule.

[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 30 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It could be. Although we don't know how much those sounds indicate distress, and perhaps watering should happen much sooner.

Imagine if aliens abduct you and give you food only when your stomach makes the kind of noise it makes after three days without eating anything, because "that's all they can detect."