Talking to Plants

This appeared in the August 6, 2020 edition of The Fish Wrap

We are aware of non-verbal ways humans communicate with each other. The odor of our pheromones can unconsciously signal fear or romantic interest. Our keen awareness of body language helps us read emotions of others without them saying a word. Animals can’t talk, but they have sophisticated ways of communicating with each other. Prairie dogs have a language of barks and yips that has a different ‘word’ for every type of predator they see approaching. We’re familiar with the chatter of humans and animals, but what about the language of plants? 

Trees are a communal species, similar to insect colonies, that form alliances with trees of other species. Some of their communication takes place under our feet in the ‘wood-wide web’, a vast, underground network of fungal filaments. Trees send distress signals about drought and disease, or insect attacks, and other trees alter their behaviour when they receive the messages. Trees also emit low frequency sounds and scent signals. When a giraffe starts eating the leaves of an acacia tree, it emits a distress signal in the form of ethylene gas. When neighboring acacias detect the gas, they start pumping tannins into their leaves that are poisonous to giraffes.

Bean plants also communicate to help each other. An aphid-infested bean plant will release odorous chemicals into the air to warn its bean plant buddies. The neighboring bean plants emit two different odors - one chemical that repels aphids and another that attracts hungry, aphid hunting wasps! 

Communication is the force that holds together and powers our world. Together, we have more strength and vitality than we have individually. Walking in the garden with an open heart and mind, you will sense what the plants want and need. If we had ears to hear, what wisdom would the trees whisper to us?