Scientists Discover That Plants Can Make Sounds When They Are Stressed

Imagine walking through a garden where every thirsty plant is making tiny clicking sounds. You cannot hear them, but they are there. Scientists have discovered that stressed plants can produce ultrasonic noises, revealing a hidden world of sounds that humans have never noticed.

Even more surprisingly, research suggests that some insects can detect these sounds and use them to make decisions.

Scientists Discover That Plants Are Not Silent

In 2023, researchers from Tel Aviv University published a remarkable study in the scientific journal Cell. They discovered that tomato and tobacco plants produce ultrasonic sounds when they experience certain types of stress.

Using sensitive microphones, the scientists recorded plants that had been deprived of water or had their stems cut. The stressed plants produced significantly more sounds than healthy plants.

Some recordings contained dozens of clicking noises per hour. These sounds occurred at frequencies of approximately 40–80 kilohertz, far above the range of normal human hearing.

The researchers also used machine learning to distinguish between some of the different conditions affecting the plants.

Why Do Plants Make These Sounds?

Plants do not have vocal cords, lungs, or nervous systems like animals. So how can they produce sounds?

One possible explanation involves a process called cavitation. Inside a plant, water moves through tiny tubes known as xylem vessels. When a plant becomes severely dehydrated, air bubbles can form and collapse within these vessels.

These events may generate tiny vibrations that produce ultrasonic clicks.

Scientists are still investigating the precise mechanisms involved, but the discovery demonstrates that plants can produce detectable airborne sounds without having anything resembling a voice.

Importantly, this does not mean plants are screaming in pain or communicating consciously. The sounds may simply be a physical consequence of stress.

Insects May Be Listening

The discovery became even more fascinating when researchers investigated whether animals could respond to these ultrasonic signals.

In a study published in 2025, scientists found that female moths could distinguish between sounds associated with hydrated and dehydrated tomato plants.

In controlled experiments, the moths tended to avoid laying eggs near the sounds of water-stressed plants.

This behavior makes biological sense. Caterpillars depend on plants for food, so a healthy plant may provide a better environment for their development.

The findings suggest that some insects can use acoustic information when choosing where to lay their eggs.

This is another remarkable example of how animals perceive signals that humans cannot detect.  

Could Farmers Listen to Their Crops?

The research could eventually have practical applications in agriculture.

Farmers currently monitor crop health using methods such as soil moisture measurements, visual inspections, and specialized sensors. Detecting plant-generated sounds might provide another way to identify water stress before obvious signs appear.

For example, future monitoring systems could potentially detect unusual ultrasonic activity in greenhouses and alert growers when plants begin experiencing dehydration.

However, this technology remains an area of research. Scientists still need to determine how reliably plant sounds can be detected under different environmental conditions, including noisy outdoor farms.

A Hidden World All Around Us

The discovery raises an extraordinary possibility: gardens, forests, and fields may contain acoustic information that humans have never been able to hear.

Plants are constantly interacting with their surroundings. They respond to light, temperature, water availability, and physical damage through complex biological processes.

Now researchers are beginning to investigate how the sounds associated with these processes might influence other organisms.

The fact that moths can respond to certain plant sounds suggests that the natural world may contain previously overlooked acoustic relationships.

Scientists have not demonstrated that plants deliberately send messages to animals. Nevertheless, the possibility that insects can use these sounds reveals another fascinating layer of ecological interaction.

The next time you walk past a tomato plant, remember that it may be producing sounds beyond your hearing. What seems like a completely silent garden could actually contain a remarkable amount of hidden activity.

And science is only beginning to understand who might be listening.

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