Can Plants Hear?

Pseudoscientific claims that music helps plants grow have been made for decades, despite evidence that is shaky at best. Yet new research suggests some flora may be capable of sensing sounds, such as the gurgle of water through a pipe or the buzzing of insects.

In a recent study, Monica Gagliano, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Western Australia, and her colleagues placed pea seedlings in pots shaped like an upside-down Y. One arm of each pot was placed in either a tray of water or a coiled plastic tube through which water flowed; the other arm had only soil. The roots grew toward the arm of the pipe with the fluid, regardless of whether it was easily accessible or hidden inside the tubing. "They just knew the water was there, even if the only thing to detect was the sound of it flowing inside the pipe," Gagliano says. Yet when the seedlings were given a choice between the water tube and some moistened soil, their roots favored the latter. Gagliano hypothesizes that these plants use sound waves to detect water at a distance but follow moisture gradients to home in on their target when it is closer.

The research, reported earlier this year in Oecologia, is not the first to suggest flora can detect and interpret such information. A 2014 study showed the rock cress Arabidopsis, a relative of cabbage, can distinguish between caterpillar chewing sounds and wind vibrations—the plant produced more chemical toxins after "hearing" a recording of feeding insects. "We tend to underestimate plants because their responses are usually less visible to us. But leaves turn out to be extremely sensitive vibration detectors," says lead study author Heidi Appel, an environmental scientist now at the University of Toledo.

Another hint that plants can hear comes from the phenomenon of "buzz pollination," in which a bee buzzing at a particular frequency has been shown to stimulate pollen release. Other experiments have found that sounds can lead to hormonal changes in plants, influence their oxygen uptake and change their growth rates. A study published earlier this year revealed that sound waves can even influence gene expression in Arabidopsis.

Michael Schöner, a biologist at University of Greifswald in Germany, who was not involved in the new research, believes that plants may have organs that can perceive noises. "Sound vibrations could trigger a response of the plant via mechanoreceptors—these could be very fine, hairy structures, anything that could work like a membrane," he says.

This research raises questions about whether acoustic pollution affects plants as well as animals, Gagliano observes: "Noise could block information channels between plants, for example, when they need to warn each other of insects." So next time you turn on a noisy leaf blower or a hedge trimmer in your garden, consider the lilies.

Me and my garden: ‘I get very emotional about plants’

As a boy, I’d go off into the moors just above my home in Bolton. I’d find interesting birds, and wander farther and farther afield each time. I was returning from a bird walk one day when I passed an allotment. I looked over the fence and this very different plant was growing in a patch of potatoes. I was moved to climb the fence and pick a bit – it was very sticky. I became known as the boy who found the Mexican tobacco, Nicotiana rustica: it was only the second recorded occurrence of this plant wild in the British Isles. I thought, if it’s that easy, what might I find if I really try?

When I was curator at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, I saw it as my big garden. Once I left the arboretum, I wanted my own collection; a garden under my nose. That way, if I was writing about plants I was growing and I needed to check – did it have a hairy leaf? Were the flowers really dark pink in bud? – I could just go outside and look.

I grew a rare Chinese magnolia, M. cylindrica, from seed sent to me from a friend I’d made in 1979 at the Shanghai Botanic Garden. He was a wonderful, shy, unpretentious gardener who was banished by the communists to some wilderness far from his home and had just been allowed back. The tree is in pride of place in my garden, where I can look down on it from my bedroom window. I had it for 15 years, and it still hadn’t flowered. I thought, if it doesn’t flower this spring, I’m going to give it away. It didn’t, so I rang a local arboretum to come and dig it up. The following spring it flowered for the first time. I thought, yes, I am going to keep you. At its peak in April, it produces several hundred blooms, and I still have it to remember my Chinese friend by.

I get very emotional about plants. Sometimes people ask where my energy comes from. Well, it should be obvious: my energy is green energy; it comes from plants, and plants get their energy from the sun. I am in my 80th year now. There’s no way I can pass away yet: there are too many plants that want to show me what they can do.

Cannabis plants found in Hednesford Road, Cannock

A MAN has been arrested after cannabis plants were discovered in Cannock.

The arrest of a motorist in Cannock resulted in the seizure of cannabis with an estimated street value of £60,000 in Pelsall on Wednesday, March 22 after plants were originally found in Hednesford Road.

Chief Inspector Geoff Knight, commander of Cannock Local Policing Team (LPT), said: "This is an excellent example of the proactive police work that continually takes place across the district.

"I hope this sends out a stark warning that if you come with the intention of selling drugs we will catch you. Illegal drugs and drugs activity in our district will not be tolerated."

Officers on routine patrol stopped a vehicle at 3.45pm on Wednesday (March 22) in Hednesford Road after noticing the driver was using a mobile phone.

When the vehicle stopped officers became suspicious due to the smell of cannabis and carried out a search. A quantity of cannabis was discovered.

The 38-year-old male driver was arrested on suspicion of possession of cannabis with intent to supply and taken into custody.

A subsequent search of an address in Lothians Road, Pelsall, resulted in the recovery of 51 cannabis plants, together with a large quantity of harvested cannabis with an estimated street value of £60,000.

A joint operation with the West Midlands cannabis destruction team resulted in the safe removal of the cannabis factory from the address.

The man arrested has since been bailed, pending further inquiries, to a date in July.

If you suspect drugs in your community report it to police on 101.

Grow your own jungle: easy exotic plants

As a botanist who grew up in tropical Singapore I have always been in love with exotic garden style, but not in the way you might expect. As a kid I was obsessed with creating an English country garden in sweltering rainforest conditions, begging my grandmother in Wales to mail me packets of sweetpea and nasturtium seeds so I could sow them in trays by air-conditioning vents and in chiller cabinets. To me these were impossibly exotic, otherworldly plants I only knew from storybooks.

Flash forward 30 years, however, and in the tiny Croydon patch I now have to play with I am forever experimenting with ornamental plants with massive jungly leaves and carnival-like flowers. You see, to me gardening is all about escapism, and playing with nature to create your very own fantasy world accessible from your front door.

Sadly, in the UK, tropical-effect gardening has become synonymous with huge expense and tricky to care for, often painfully slow-growing plants. Yet if you get your species choice right, you don’t have to splash out a small fortune on towering palms or tree ferns to get a flavour of faraway places. To prove it here are some of my favourite plants that provide massive impact in a single season from a modestly priced packet of seed or bulbs.

Eucalyptus are some of the fastest-growing trees on earth and can reach 6ft in a single season from a packet of seed. I love the frost-hardy cider gum (Eucalyptus gunnii) for its bright silver foliage, that can be kept at a manageable size by being cut right back to the base each spring, from where it produces its flushes of disc-shaped, powdery foliage.

For truly massive leaves, the foxglove tree (Paulownia tomentosa) can also be sown from seed and is extremely fast-growing. If whacked to the base each spring, it can throw out leaves the size of dustbin lids on branches 9ft high by the autumn. Other super quick, great impact foliage plants from seed include ricinus, echiums and solenostemon.

If it’s flowers you’re after, cannas, tree lilies and hedychiums will all put on a spectacular show year after year from an inexpensive packet of rhizomes – and from their very first summer, too. But to me the most quirky and cool of all the summer bulbs is the pineapple lily (Eucomis sp), a super easy to grow plant that in my experience can take all the cold and neglect you can give it. Eucomis bicolor has spectacular-sized cream and apple green flowers with a delicate purple lining, while Eucomis comosa ‘Sparkling Burgundy’, as the name suggests, kicks the shocking purple pigment into overdrive.

With plants like these, anyone can have a storybook jungle in their back yard for less than the price of a meal out.

Aberdeen council to fell hundreds of diseased trees

Hundreds of diseased or dead trees will be felled across Aberdeen this year, the council has announced.

The trees include a large number that have been infected with Dutch elm disease.

Aberdeen City Council said about 400 trees would be felled. They are mainly beside roads, but others are in parks, gardens and play areas.

The authority has about 100,000 trees and 400 hectares of woodland to look after in the city.

About 50 dead elm trees have been identified around Aberdeen with Kincorth, Summerhill, Rosehill, Cults, Culter, Stoneywood, and Bridge of Don particularly affected.

Tree epidemics

Aberdeen City Council's infrastructure convener, Neil Cooney, said: "We do not want to cut down trees but unfortunately we must, especially where there is Dutch elm disease to try and stop it from spreading.

"Our priority is to have safe and healthy trees for residents and visitors to enjoy in all parts of the city as part of our beautiful and vibrant green spaces.

"Removing dead or diseased trees means there is more room for the healthy trees to grow. Our arboricultural team will be undertaking this work over the next few months."

Dutch elm disease is one of the most serious tree diseases in the world. It has killed more than 60 million British elms in two epidemics and continues to spread.

It is caused by an aggressive fungus spread by elm bark beetles and infects all of Britain's elm species.

The elms die within three years of first signs of the disease, but may die within a season.