Why I Talk to My Plants—Because They “Listen”: What Do We Know about How Plants Sense Their Environment?

Simon Gilroy, professor, Department of Botany. Rooted and unable to flee danger, plants have to sense the world around them and trigger appropriate responses to survive. This talk will discuss the remarkable advances in our understanding of how plants sense stimuli without a brain or nervous system. For example, plants sense when a leaf is picked or its stem is gently touched, tell their neighbors when under attack, and know when they are over-watered.