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It’s long been believed that plants don’t hear and are also silent. But scientists at Tel Aviv University believe they’ve found evidence that plants can hear and create sound. In the first case, plants listen for the sounds of pollinators and respond by making their nectar sweeter (using flowers as “ears”). In the later case, the reasoning for the sounds that plants make is less understood, but the scientists involved with the study suggest it could be connected to the condition of the plant–whether it is healthy or weak, for example.
Reviewers who have considered the work by these Tel Aviv University scientists believe plants can hear because it feeds an ecological need–if a plant identifies a pollinator and attracts that pollinator to it, it furthers its own survival. More study is necessary regarding the plants making sound to determine the “why”.
You can read more about these researchers and future work needed here!
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