If you grew up thinking plants are silent, think again. New research from Israel and Türkiye finds that stressed plants send out ultrasonic distress clicks and that insects, and even mathematical models, are starting to tune in to this hidden channel. For agriculture and ecology, that quiet exchange could become a powerful new source of information.
In a study from Tel Aviv University, female moths avoided tomato plants that “sounded” dry. The team recorded ultrasonic clicks from dehydrated plants, then played those sounds next to otherwise healthy tomatoes.
Given a choice, the moths chose the silent plants for laying their eggs, a behavior scientists interpret as an attempt to give their larvae a better chance at survival. Researchers describe this as the first clear evidence that an animal is responding to sounds produced by a plant.
Tomato plants clicking in distress
The moth work builds on earlier experiments showing that plants emit bursts of ultrasound when they are under stress. When tomatoes or other crops are cut, deprived of water, or otherwise damaged, they produce short, high-frequency pops that are beyond human hearing but within the range of bats and many insects.
One Tel Aviv group reported that individual plant species and different types of stress are associated with distinct acoustic “signatures,” almost like a bar code for plant trouble.
In the latest tomato study, drought-stressed plants produced dozens of ultrasonic clicks per minute. Those recordings were then broadcast near well watered tomatoes while female moths searched for a place to lay eggs.
The insects consistently chose the quiet plants rather than those “complaining” through the speaker. That pattern suggests the moths are picking up acoustic information and turning it into a practical decision about where to invest their offspring.
A new tool for greener farming
What if farmers could hear their crops ask for water before any leaf looks stressed? For agriculture, the idea that plants are constantly broadcasting their condition is more than a curiosity. Earlier work showed that microphones and artificial intelligence can detect and classify plant sounds linked to water scarcity or physical injury before leaves visibly droop.
Farmers could use that kind of early warning to fine tune irrigation instead of overwatering “just in case,” which matters when every drop and every electric bill count.
The Tel Aviv moth study adds another piece. If insects avoid the acoustic profile of stressed plants, then sound becomes a possible handle on pest behavior.
Scientists involved in the research say the discovery could support new approaches to crop protection based on sound, alongside existing tools such as habitat management and targeted spraying. Many experts see this as one more way to reduce blanket pesticide use while keeping yields stable.
From biology to equations
At the same time, engineers are looking inside the plant to see how it might be listening. A separate study by researchers at Koç University in Türkiye, released as a preprint on the arXiv server, built what they call the first end-to-end mathematical model of acoustic communication in plants.
In their simulations, a gentle 200 hertz vibration at very low pressure raised calcium levels inside plant cells from about 150 nanomolar to around 230 nanomolar in roughly 50 seconds, a shift that the authors say can cause root bending in the long run.
By turning plant hearing into equations, the model offers a quantitative framework for phytoacoustics, the study of sound in plant life. The authors argue that such models could inform “bio inspired acoustic connections” for precision agriculture, where sensors and speakers work with plants’ own signaling systems to a large extent instead of relying only on external chemicals.
To a moth, a bat, or a sensitive microphone, a field of tomatoes is anything but silent. As scientists start to decipher this quiet conversation, the hope is that farmers and ecosystems can benefit too.
The study was published on eLife.
