In what may be upsetting news for vegetarians, it turns out that plants actually ‘hear’ themselves being eaten alive – and react.Boy's heartbreaking suicidal note wishing his mum would kill him
Researchers from the University of Missouri found that plants could ‘hear’ when caterpillars were eating them – and create defensive chemicals to fend them off.
Plants have long been known to be able to ‘hear’ – or sense vibrations – but why they can do this has been a mystery.
Researchers placed caterpillars on Arabidopsis, a plant related to cabbage and mustard.
Heidi Appel of the University of Missouri said, ‘Previous research has investigated how plants respond to acoustic energy, including music.
‘However, our work is the first example of how plants respond to an ecologically relevant vibration.
‘We found that ‘feeding vibrations’ signal changes in the plant cells’ metabolism, creating more defensive chemicals that can repel attacks from caterpillars.’