Do you talk to your plants?

Do you talk to your plants? I find myself talking to my plants out in my yard all the time. Or, sometimes I talk to the insects that are visiting them. I had no idea I was invigorating the plants by doing so. The Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters have performed an experiment with pea plants using recorded music which seems to indicate that the plants grow better with the stimuli of music vibrations.

That led me to do some further research and I found an interesting article in the Penn State News by Alexa Stevenson. Scientists believe that it could be the decibel levels of the sound that affect the plant. 70 decibels is about normal for human speech, and at 70 decibels two of a plants genes — rbcS and Ald — become more active.

Others believe it is the carbon dioxide emitted as we talk to our plants — which is plausible, if you carry on a lengthy conversation. My conversations typically last only a few seconds, so that doesn’t seem to be the answer.

Although all these experiments were carried on with house plants or vegetables, my imagination runs wild when I think about the fun conversations the buffalo and the prairie dogs may have with the prairie plants.

Use your imagination — is the chatter in the background of this video human or buffalo? This herd of buffalo is moving fast along the Lamar River, Upper Loop of Yellowstone, home of the Lamar Ranger Station Buffalo Ranch, Yellowstone Institute.