I’ve mentioned my reading of the book “The Great Animal Orchestra” which looks at the sounds made by animals natural phenomenon such as wind. But get this: plants also make sounds. And they seem to use these sounds to communicate.

[Exeter University scientist Monica Gagliano], along with fellow researchers Stefano Mancuso and Daniel Robert, used powerful acoustic instrumentation which allowed them to hear clicking sounds coming from the roots of corn saplings. They also found that when they suspended the young roots in water and played a continuous noise at 200 Hz – a similar frequency to the clicks – the plants grew towards the source of the sound.

Gagliano and her team concluded that plants are indeed communicating with each other by making clicking sounds that travel easily through soil. It’s thought that, like the methyl jasmonate, these signals are warning of incoming threats.

I myself have heard clicking sounds coming from corn — when I’m heating it up in a pan and making delicious popcorn! I now understand those clicking sounds to be plant screams of pain as they are literally burned to death. But so delicious!