Five Fact Friday: Plants and Hearing

1. Current serious and reputable scientific studies have shown that sounds of music have no affect on plants at all.
2. The closest a rigorously performed scientific experiment that seemed to show plants growing better when in the presence of music was later reconfigured. This was because the heat from the speakers was being pushed towards the plant; thereby making heat the reason for better growth rather than sound. As soon as this heat was blown away from the plant, no difference was seen between the plants grown in silence and in the presence of music (experiments by Peter Scott in the Physiology and Behaviour of Plants).
3. One area of current study is looking at the vibrations of bees on plants. It is well known that bees get flowers to release pollen via their buzzing. However, physical contact also takes places showing that this area of study will probably be fruitless.
4. Scientists will need to consider what the auditory system of a plant would be, as it will be different to that of animals. Only in this way can they design experiments that could possibly lead to evidence that plants can hear.
5. It seems to be a fact that with no current evidence - plants cannot hear. With around 400,000 plants on the Earth, it also seems to be a fact that they do not need to. They grow sufficiently successfully with their other senses, therefore perhaps there has been no evolutionary advantage to developing hearing in plants.

References
Chamovitz, D. (2012) What a Plant Knows, Oxford, Oneworld Book.