Plant DecodedDo plants make sounds?
They do. You just need very good ears, or a very good microphone.
By 
Short answer
Yes, 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.
What did scientists actually record?
A team at Tel Aviv University put tomato and tobacco plants in soundproof boxes and pointed sensitive microphones at them from about 10 centimetres away. Then they let some plants dry out, cut the stems of others, and left a third group alone.
The stressed plants clicked. A dried-out tomato plant made about 35 clicks an hour. Cut plants clicked too, and healthy plants barely made a sound. When the team moved into a noisy greenhouse, they trained a machine-learning model to pick plant clicks out of the background noise and even tell a thirsty plant from a cut one.
They found the same thing in other plants too, including wheat, corn, grapevine and cactus.
Could you ever hear your houseplant?
Not without help. The clicks are ultrasonic, well above what human ears can pick up. Slow them down and drop the pitch, and they sound a bit like popcorn or bubble wrap.
Some animals can hear in that range, though. The researchers point out that certain moths, which lay eggs on tomato plants, could in theory use the sounds to avoid a stressed, thirsty host. Nobody has tested that yet.
Are plants talking, then?
Probably not in the way “talking” suggests. The clicks seem to be a physical side effect of stress, not a message the plant is trying to send. But a sound doesn’t have to be intentional to carry information. Thunder isn’t trying to tell you about the storm, and it still does.
Whether any other living thing actually listens to plant clicks is one of the big open questions. Plants themselves do respond to some sounds, which is a story for can plants hear?
Why this matters for growers
If thirst has a sound, farms could one day listen for it. Microphones in a field or greenhouse might flag which plants need water before the leaves start to droop, saving water and catching stress early. It’s still a research idea, but it’s a practical one.
For the curious
Below the surface: where the clicks probably come from
Water moves up a plant through long, thin tubes called xylem, pulled from above as water evaporates from the leaves. When the soil dries out, that pull gets stronger and the water column is under more and more tension.
Eventually, tiny air bubbles form and the water column snaps. This is called cavitation, and researchers have known for decades that it makes ultrasonic noise in drought-stressed trees. The 2023 team suggests cavitation is a likely source of the clicks they recorded, though they haven’t proven it’s the only one.
That fits neatly with what they saw: drier plants, more tension, more snapping, more clicks.
How sure are we?
Quick questions
Do plants scream when you cut them?
“Scream” is a headline word. Cut plants make more ultrasonic clicks than healthy ones, but there’s no evidence it’s a cry of distress.
Can I hear my plants with a phone app?
Unlikely. Most phone microphones aren’t designed to capture ultrasound, so you’d need specialist recording equipment.
Do plants respond to sound?
Some do. Evening primrose flowers make sweeter nectar when they pick up a bee’s buzz. More on that in our note on whether plants can hear.
Sources
- Khait I, Lewin-Epstein O, Sharon R, et al. (2023). Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative. Cell 186(7): 1328–1336. Read the paper
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