Do Plants Scream? 7 Shocking Sounds Plants Make Under Stress

The 2023 discovery that changed the question

The breakthrough came from Professor Lilach Hadany’s lab at Tel Aviv University. In a 2023 paper in Cell, researchers showed that stressed plants emit airborne ultrasonic clicks — sounds that travel through air and can be detected from over a meter away.

Earlier work had detected vibrations inside plants with contact sensors. This study mattered because it showed the sounds escape into the air, where other organisms might hear them. So when people ask “do plants scream,” the measurable scientific claim is: stressed plants can make airborne ultrasonic sounds.

The team used ultrasonic microphones capable of capturing frequencies far above human hearing. They recorded tomato and tobacco plants in a soundproof chamber, then checked the pattern in a noisier greenhouse.

What do stressed plants actually sound like?

Because the original frequencies sit between about 40 and 80 kHz — above human hearing — researchers pitch-shift recordings to make them audible. Lowered, the clicks sound like sharp popcorn pops.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) each had characteristic signatures. Stress type mattered too: dehydration and stem cutting produced statistically distinct acoustic profiles.

The lab also recorded corn, wheat, grape, and cactus plants that emitted ultrasonic sounds when stressed. That points to a widespread plant phenomenon, not a quirk of two species.

Why we never heard plants until now

Humans typically hear up to about 16–20 kHz. Plant clicks in this study lived around 40–80 kHz. Dog whistles sit near the lower edge of that band; many bats use far higher frequencies for echolocation. Plant emissions overlap ranges that moths, mice, cats, and bats can detect.

The leading mechanical hypothesis is cavitation: under drought or damage, air bubbles form and collapse in the xylem (water-transport tissue). Each collapse can launch a sharp ultrasonic pop. That makes the “scream” metaphor vivid — and scientifically risky — because the cause may be plumbing physics, not emotion.

Tissue vibrations were studied as early as the 1980s with contact sensors. Proving those vibrations become real airborne sounds required better microphones, quieter chambers, and machine learning to separate signal from noise.

Who’s listening? Insects, bats, and maybe neighbors

Even if plants do not “intend” to speak, other organisms can detect overlapping frequencies. Moths evolved hearing partly to evade bats; that same range can intersect plant emissions. Mice, cats, and bats are also candidates.

That raises ecological questions: could pests or pollinators use plant sound as a cue? The 2023 paper shows sounds are informative about plant state; it does not prove that wild animals already use them as guidance systems.

Earlier work from related research showed plants can respond to some vibrations (for example, nectar sugar changes linked to pollinator wing beats). Whether plants also “hear” one another’s ultrasonic stress clicks remains an open, careful question — interesting, not settled.

Can plants feel pain? The hard scientific answer

Producing a sound and experiencing pain are different claims. A kettle whistles; a car misfires. Neither feels. Plant ultrasonic emissions are consistent with mechanical cavitation events in vascular tissue.

Most biologists argue pain requires a nervous system that can integrate signals into experience. Plants have no neurons and no brain. They do use chemical signals (auxins, jasmonates, and more) for growth and defense — powerful biology, still not a proven “experiencer.”

The discovery still matters philosophically: plants respond to threats, change chemistry, and can broadcast ultrasonic cues. Science can describe what plants do; it cannot yet settle what, if anything, they “feel.” The careful framing is: plants do not scream like humans — and they are not as silent as we assumed.

Conclusion: do plants scream — or just speak?

Do plants scream? Literally, they can emit airborne ultrasonic clicks when stressed, and those sounds carry information about condition. Whether that counts as “screaming” depends on the word. There is no nervous system and no demonstrated human-like suffering.

But there is something. Stressed plants are not silent — they are broadcasting, even if without intent. Insects, mammals, and possibly other plants may sit in hearing range. Walk a dry field on a hot day and you may be surrounded by an ultrasonic chorus human ears cannot hear.

Plants don’t scream the way we do. But they’re not as silent as we thought.

FAQ: plant sounds and stress