https://plantdecoded.com/Plant science and plant care, explained by a plant scientist.en https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/can-plants-feel-pain/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/can-plants-feel-pain/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Myths decodedNo, not the way you do. Pain needs nerves and a brain to turn damage into a feeling, and plants have neither. What plants do have is a fast alarm system: when a leaf is bitten, electrical and calcium signals race through the plant and switch on its chemical defences, all without feeling a thing. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/do-plants-make-sounds/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/do-plants-make-sounds/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Plant behaviourYes, but you can’t hear them. In 2023, scientists recorded stressed tomato and tobacco plants making ultrasonic clicks, far above the range of human hearing. Thirsty or cut plants clicked much more than healthy ones, and a computer could tell what was wrong with a plant from the sound alone. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/can-plants-hear/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/can-plants-hear/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Plant behaviourNot with ears, but some plants respond to sound vibrations in surprisingly useful ways. Evening primrose flowers made sweeter nectar within three minutes of picking up a bee’s buzz. And plants played the sound of caterpillars chewing defended themselves harder when real caterpillars showed up later. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/wood-wide-web/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/wood-wide-web/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Myths decodedProbably not the way you’ve heard. Fungi really do partner with tree roots, and some carbon can move between trees. But a 2023 review found no peer-reviewed field study showing that “mother trees” send food or warnings to their seedlings through these fungal networks. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/why-do-roots-grow-down/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/why-do-roots-grow-down/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000How plants workRoots grow down because cells in the root tip hold heavy starch grains that sink towards whichever side is down. Where they settle tells the root which way gravity points. The root then sends growth hormone to its lower side, which slows growth there, so the tip curves down. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/how-does-photosynthesis-work/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/how-does-photosynthesis-work/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000How plants workPhotosynthesis is how plants turn light into food. Leaves capture sunlight with chlorophyll, use that energy to split water, and build sugar out of carbon dioxide from the air. Oxygen is the leftover, released into the air we breathe. In short: carbon dioxide plus water plus light makes sugar plus oxygen. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/why-are-plant-leaves-turning-yellow/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/why-are-plant-leaves-turning-yellow/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Grow smarterYellow leaves usually mean the leaf is losing chlorophyll, and where the yellow shows up tells you why. Old lower leaves yellowing first points to nitrogen shortage or normal ageing. Young leaves turning yellow with green veins suggests iron. Yellow leaves plus soggy soil almost always means overwatering. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/what-does-overwatering-do-to-plants/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/what-does-overwatering-do-to-plants/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Grow smarterOverwatering doesn’t drown a plant with water, it suffocates the roots. Roots need oxygen, and soil that stays soggy pushes the air out. Starved of oxygen, roots stop working and start to rot, so the plant wilts and yellows even though the soil is wet. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/why-is-my-plant-leggy/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/why-is-my-plant-leggy/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Grow smarterA leggy plant is reaching for light. When light is too dim, a plant puts its energy into stretching its stems longer and thinner to find a brighter spot, leaving big gaps between leaves. Botanists call it etiolation. More light stops it, and pruning helps the plant fill back out. https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/do-houseplants-clean-the-air/https://plantdecoded.com/field-notes/do-houseplants-clean-the-air/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Myths decodedNot in any way you’d notice. Houseplants can remove some pollutants in small sealed chambers, which is where the idea came from. But a 2020 review worked out you’d need somewhere between 10 and 1,000 plants per square metre to match what ordinary ventilation already does. Open a window instead, and keep plants because you love them.