Seeds “feel” the sound of rain

"Plant seeds can sense the vibrations created by falling raindrops," ScienceAlert reports, “and respond by awakening from their state of dormancy to welcome the water”, new research shows.

The finding, discovered by MIT mechanical engineers Nicholas Makris and Cadine Navarro, offers the first direct evidence that seeds and seedlings can sense and respond to sounds in nature… “The energy of the sound of rain is enough to accelerate the growth of a seed,” says Markis.

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Plants of course do not have the same auditory equipment that we do to actually hear sounds.

But the study shows us that seeds respond to the same vibrations that can produce a sound experience in human ears.

In a series of experiments, the researchers submerged nearly 8.000 rice seeds in shallow tanks of water, about 3 centimeters deep, and exposed some of them to falling water droplets for periods of six days...

A hydrophone recorded the acoustic vibrations produced by the drops, confirming that the experiment mimicked the vibrations produced by real raindrops falling in nature, such as the torrential rains that sometimes fall on puddles, lakes, and wetlands.

In their study, the researchers observed that seeds that had been exposed to the falling drops germinated up to about 37% faster, compared to seeds that did not have the simulated storm treatment.

DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-44444-1

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