---
title: "the plant has a signal. what does it mean?"
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/the-plant-has-a-signal-what-does-it-mean
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/the-plant-has-a-signal-what-does-it-mean.md
subtitle: "following plant and fungal measurements through research, sonification and art"
category: natural-capital
---

# the plant has a signal. what does it mean?

*following plant and fungal measurements through research, sonification and art*

A plant can produce a trace on a screen and a melody through a speaker. The interesting question begins with what connects the two.

A microphone may record an airborne sound. Electrodes may track an electrical change. Software may turn a measurement into a piano note. Each gives us a way to attend to the living thing in front of us. Understanding what it tells us takes a little more context.

That context is useful whether you maintain a greenhouse, study fungi, make generative art, or want to understand the tree outside your window. Start by keeping three things together: the measurement, the transformation, and the interpretation.

## interpreting plant signals begins with three questions

A **measurement** is the recorded property: an acoustic waveform, a voltage difference, or a change in electrical conductivity under stated conditions. A **mapping** describes how that record becomes something else, such as a classification, graph, or sound. An **interpretation** is the explanation someone gives it.

Here is a small record you can use for a research project, installation, or field observation:

| what was measured? | how was it transformed? | what is inferred? |
|---|---|---|
| Airborne ultrasonic emissions from a named plant under a documented treatment | A model classifies features extracted from recordings | A specified condition is associated with those features within the tested setting |
| Conductivity changes between two points on a plant | Software maps variation to pitch and plays selected instruments | The listener experiences a musical rendering of the measured variation |
| Electrical potential near fungal tissue, alongside controls | A method identifies peaks or patterns in the trace | A hypothesis about biological activity that needs testing against noise and alternative explanations |

The last column should name its author and its limits. A researcher, artist, gardener, and model may interpret the same trace differently. Keeping their interpretations attached to the record makes the differences discussable.

## what the plant-sound experiment established

In a 2023 *Cell* paper, Itzhak Khait and colleagues recorded ultrasonic sounds from tomato and tobacco plants under drought, cutting, and control conditions. They worked in an acoustic chamber and a greenhouse, and trained models to distinguish plant conditions from features of the recordings. Their results support a bounded finding: plant emissions carried information about condition under the tested circumstances. [Khait et al.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.03.009)

That is already an interesting possibility for monitoring. To use it elsewhere, a grower would need to know how the method performs with their crop, equipment, background sound, and growing conditions. A useful result travels with the conditions that made it useful.

The receiver is another part of the question. In a study published in 2026, Rya Seltzer and colleagues tested female Egyptian cotton leafworm moths with playback of sounds typical of dehydrated plants. In trials without plants, females preferred the side playing the sounds; with plants present, they preferred silent plants. The egg-laying response depended on the experimental setting. That provides evidence of a particular animal using acoustic information, and a reason to study the surrounding context carefully. [Seltzer et al.](https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.104700)

A condition association, a receiver response, and evidence that an emission evolved for communication are different propositions. An experiment can investigate one and leave the others open. A plain description of which proposition was tested helps the next person build on it.

## a musical instrument with a living input

**Sonification** means representing data through sound. It can make a changing pattern easier to notice and give people an engaging way to spend time with a plant.

PlantWave describes measuring conductivity fluctuations between two points on a plant, graphing the changes, and mapping them to pitch messages that control instruments designed by its team. The plant contributes measured variation; the software and its makers contribute the musical rules. Both belong in the explanation of what a listener hears. [PlantWave's measurement description](https://help.plantwave.com/en-US/what-exactly-is-being-measured-230414)

PlantsPlay likewise describes an electrode-based system that converts plant electrical variation into musical notes, with choices of instruments, scales, and sound design in its app. [PlantsPlay](https://plantsplay.com/)

A change of scale or instrument can change how a recording feels to a listener. Someone may find it moving, calming, or a prompt to care more closely for a plant. Attribute that experience to the person who had it. If the music also prompts a claim about thirst, disease, or preference, give that claim its own test and supporting observations.

## fungal traces deserve good controls

Fungi bring another set of measurement challenges. Matteo Buffi and colleagues' 2025 review examines electrical signaling research and the difficulty of separating biological activity from other sources in a recording. In one experiment discussed in the review, activity near an incubator affected traces from both fungal material and a control. Electrode position and recording conditions matter to the interpretation. [Buffi et al.](https://doi.org/10.1093/femsre/fuaf009)

For a contribution based on electrical traces, useful companions include the raw data, electrode arrangement, substrate controls, environmental conditions, and the analysis used to identify a pattern. Those details let another person ask whether a pattern repeats and what could explain it.

This is an invitation to better listening. A surprising trace becomes more valuable when someone else can examine how it was obtained. For the ecological role of the organisms themselves, our [guide to mycorrhizal fungi](/guide/you-dont-have-a-soil-problem-you-have-a-missing-underground-network?from=guide) follows the living relationships below ground.

## a forest can also become an artwork with a rule

The research and art group terra0 offers another way to connect ecological data to human decisions. Its *Two Degrees* artwork depicts a German forest captured by laser scanning, or LiDAR. The creators describe a program on Ethereum's public ledger that uses a NASA-derived temperature measure and a set threshold. Their team must also confirm the result through its shared control account before the artwork's digital token can be removed from circulation, a process called burning. [terra0's technical account](https://terra0.medium.com/two-degrees-nft-5af1263bfcc)

Here the meaningful connection is explicit: a source, a transformation, a rule, and a possible action. The forest has not supplied the rule; people designed an artwork that makes a relationship to environmental change tangible.

That clarity is useful beyond art. A care proposal can say which observation prompted it, who interpreted the observation, who may decide, and how a later measurement would help assess the result.

## keep the wonder and the record

A melody can draw someone toward a tree. A well-designed experiment can reveal a physiological pattern. A field observation can suggest a question that neither the artist nor the laboratory had considered.

In the coordination work we are planning for ensurance, these contributions would retain their sources and attributed interpretations as they enter claims and evidence. The point is to make a useful response possible while keeping the path from input to decision open to inspection.

If you are working with plant or fungal measurements, sonification, or ecological art, begin with the three-column record above. Add the organism, setting, method, permissions, and the question you want to investigate. A link to a sample you are allowed to share is enough to begin a conversation.

[Show us your method](/contact?from=guide&topic=listening-across-species).

## frequently asked questions

### can interpreting plant signals tell us what a plant needs?

A validated method may support an inference about a particular condition. A care decision also needs the species, growing conditions, other observations, and the consequences of acting. State which parts are measured and which are inferred.

### is plant music a recording of the sound a plant emits?

Electrode-based plant music is a sonification of electrical measurements. Airborne plant bioacoustics uses microphones to record acoustic emissions. The method tells you what kind of record you are hearing.

### can an artwork be a useful contribution?

Yes. It may reveal a pattern, make data accessible, or motivate a new question. Keep its inputs, creative mapping, author, and intended meaning available alongside the work. Use [claims and evidence](/guide/a-claim-is-not-a-reading?from=guide) to carry any separate testable proposition.

## sources

[Khait et al., 2023, *Cell*](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.03.009) — plant acoustic recordings, methods, controls, and condition classification.

[Seltzer et al., 2026, *eLife*](https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.104700) — context-dependent moth oviposition responses in plant-sound playback experiments.

[Buffi et al., 2025, *FEMS Microbiology Reviews*](https://doi.org/10.1093/femsre/fuaf009) — fungal electrical measurements and methodological challenges.

[PlantWave measurement documentation](https://help.plantwave.com/en-US/what-exactly-is-being-measured-230414) and [PlantsPlay](https://plantsplay.com/) — the creators' descriptions of their sonification systems.

[terra0, *Two Degrees*](https://terra0.medium.com/two-degrees-nft-5af1263bfcc) — the artwork's data source, contract logic, and human verification step.

## the series

Listening across species follows observations, interpretations and the care they could inform.

1. [what would it take to understand another species?](/guide/what-would-it-take-to-understand-another-species?from=guide)
2. [a whale calls back. what can we learn?](/guide/a-whale-calls-back-what-can-we-learn?from=guide)
3. [the plant has a signal. what does it mean?](/guide/the-plant-has-a-signal-what-does-it-mean?from=guide)
4. [one tree is a place to start](/guide/one-tree-is-a-place-to-start?from=guide)
5. [many ways of knowing, shared with care](/guide/many-ways-of-knowing-shared-with-care?from=guide)
6. [share the finding, protect the place](/guide/share-the-finding-protect-the-place?from=guide)
7. [from a signal to an act of care](/guide/from-a-signal-to-an-act-of-care?from=guide)
8. [bring one signal. help shape what happens next.](/guide/bring-one-signal-help-shape-what-happens-next?from=guide)