14 DAY TRIAL // A team of Australian researchers writing in the online journal BMC Ecology argue that plants communicate with one another with the help of so-called microscopic sounds.
Furthermore, their investigations into the matter at hand have revealed that whereas some plants are friendly, others are utterly mean.
The “talking” behavior of plants allegedly influences the growth of their neighbors. As Daily Mail explains, seeds placed close to friendly plants grow faster and stronger.
Experiments carried out on chilli seeds have revealed that basil is a very good neighbor, whereas fennel is a rather aggressive one.
“Our results show that plants are able to positively influence the growth of seeds by some as yet unknown mechanism. Bad neighbours, such as fennel, prevent chilli seed germination in the same way,” Dr. Monica Gagliano said.
“We believe that the answer may involve acoustic signals generated using nanomechanical oscillations from inside the cell which allow rapid communication between nearby plants,” the researcher further argued.