Feelings aside, plants don’t recognize their owners

Plants don’t have feelings.

I’ve said that over and over again, often to people who are heartbroken over killing a plant or to those who are too guilt-ridden to toss out an ailing plant that has little hope of properly recovering. I’ve even used it to make myself feel better about the dozens and dozens of plants that have died under my care.

But there’s a problem with that statement: There’s increasing evidence that I might be wrong.

Several recent studies have shown that there’s more happening with plants than we thought. Researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel published a study in 2023 that showed stressed plants ­— those that were dehydrated or had stems cut — make sounds like clicking or popping, likely caused by cavitation, that are not perceptible to the human ear without amplification.

Now a new study from the university reveals that insects may be using those sounds to their benefit. It shows that a specific kind of moth prefers to lay its eggs on a quiet plant, that is, a healthier plant. This is a good call for the moth because when the eggs hatch the larvae feed off the leaves, and a thriving plant will have more food.

Researchers tested the theory by presenting moths with two healthy plants, with one emitting recorded sounds of plant distress, and the moths chose the silent plant time and time again.

The moth research is the tip of the iceberg and researchers agree that experiments in nature, rather than in a lab, need to be done.

Other studies have shown that trees are communal, and that trees in forests “communicate” with each other through mycorrhizal networks, where fine roots combine with fungi to create a network. It’s a phenomenon explored in the book “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How they Communicate” written by German forester Peter Wohllenben.

Some people view these studies as evidence that plants have feelings and may even be sentient beings.

That’s a leap I wasn’t ready to make until something I saw (on social media, so it must be true) that said houseplants can identify their owners had me second-guessing myself.

This would be a truly frightening development for me because I am no friend to houseplants. I have them, but I am not one of those “plant parents” that dotes on them, rotating them to receive even light, talking to them and constantly checking on their well being. Plants in my house should consider themselves lucky if I remember to throw some water on them every few weeks. In fact, many of those plants I mentioned earlier that have died under my care did it right under my nose inside my house.

I did some digging and it seems that houseplants recognizing their owners is myth, with no scientific research to back it up.

Thank goodness, because if that were true I think my houseplants would be screaming when they saw me coming, and my guess is it would be loud enough to hear without a microphone.