Plants may not have ears, but they’re able to detect sound vibrations in ways that would astonish most gardeners. Scientific research has revealed some plants perceive and respond to acoustic signals in their environment. They then use those vibrations to make crucial decisions about defense, growth, and even reproduction.

In 2019, biologist Lilach Hadany of Tel Aviv University discovered evening primroses can pick up the specific frequencies of bees’ wings. Within minutes, the plants increase their nectar’s sugar concentration, making themselves more attractive to the visiting pollinators. Hadany surmised that the flower’s bowl-shaped blossoms act as an earlike structure, helping to detect the vibrations.

One of the world’s largest carnivorous plants is big enough to eat rats.

fact

FIB

Ready to reveal?

Confirm your email to play the next question?

sign up!

Please enter valid email.

Sign up

Oops, incorrect!

It's a fact

Nepenthes rajah, the world’s largest pitcher plant, secretes a sweet-scented nectar to lure prey — including rats, frogs, and insects — into its acidic pitcher traps, which then slowly digest the unfortunate creatures.

And in 2014, researchers at the University of Missouri found that when a caterpillar chews on the leaves of a plant, it creates distinctive vibrations that travel through the plant’s tissues. Some plants can detect those very specific vibrations and perceive them as a threat; they then engage their chemical defenses, producing compounds that make their leaves less palatable to the munching insects. 

Researchers refer to this as “hearing” because the plants aren’t just reacting to being touched or shaken — they’re “listening” for the unique “sounds” (vibrational rhythms) of the specific input (such as a predator chewing). Remarkably, the study showed plants can distinguish between different vibrations, whether it’s a munching insect or another mechanical disturbance such as the wind or raindrops — activating their defenses only when genuinely threatened.

Further studies have shown plants can even use sound to navigate their environment. In 2014, researchers discovered that plant roots are capable of locating water sources by sensing the vibrations generated by moving water — further evidence that plants can sense more than we give them credit for.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Email

Hummingbirds sometimes seem otherworldly compared to other feathered friends. They see more colors than the human eye does and can even enter a deathlike state to survive frigid winter nights. But their most remarkable ability has to do with their incredibly fast-moving wings, with the fastest flapping upwards of 70 times per second. Thanks to those incredible appendages, hummingbirds can hover — and they’re the only species of bird that can do so on their own for a sustained period of time. Hummingbirds can also move up, down, left, right, forward, and yes, even backward (another unique ability), reaching speeds of 75 miles per hour. According to Audubon, the hummingbird also has really sensitive “brakes” and can switch from flying 25 miles per hour to coming to a dead stop within the length of a human index finger. 

A species of hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world.

fact

FIB

Ready to reveal?

Confirm your email to play the next question?

sign up!

Please enter valid email.

Sign up

Oops, incorrect!

It's a fact

The world’s smallest bird is the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), which can be found only in Cuba. This pint-sized hummingbird is only 2.25 inches long and weighs around 2 grams — about the weight of a dime.

How are hummingbirds such aerial aces? Well, most birds achieve lift only when flapping their wings down, but hummingbirds swish their wings in a side-to-side, figure-eight pattern, which is more characteristic of an insect than a bird. (The feat has earned them the excellent nickname “hummingbugs.”) Although hummingbirds have evolved to use their wing muscles efficiently, their tiny bodies have an incredibly high metabolism, which means the creatures must constantly hunt for food to survive. Remarkably, hummingbirds can drain up to 10 drops of nectar from a flower in 15 milliseconds (or one-hundredth of a second).

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Email

The North Atlantic is filled with lobsters, and it’s been that way for millennia. In fact, the first European settlers who arrived in North America in the 17th century reported that heaps of lobsters — some in 2-foot piles — simply washed up along the shore, making the crustaceans a vital source of protein during those harsh New England winters. Fast-forward 400 years, and lobsters remain plentiful; by one estimate, the lobster industry catches some 200 million lobsters in the North Atlantic every year. Among those millions of lobsters are some truly eye-catching crustaceans — including the blue lobster, which is so rare that scientists estimate it’s a 1-in-2 million catch. Although such a rare find fetches a high price at the market, no evidence suggests that the blue lobsters (whose sapphire hue is caused by a genetic defect) taste any different than their normal-colored brethren. 

Most lobsters are red.

fact

FIB

Ready to reveal?

Confirm your email to play the next question?

sign up!

Please enter valid email.

Sign up

Oops, incorrect!

It's a fib

Lobsters are actually many colors (though most look brown) and only turn red when cooked. A lobster’s various natural hues come from the chemical astaxanthin, which binds with the protein crustacyanin. When boiled, astaxanthin is released, and the creature turns a reddish-orange.

Although blue lobsters are a rarity in the North Atlantic, they are far from the most exclusive crustacean living along the seabed. The Lobster Institute at the University of Maine says that finding a yellow lobster, for example, is a 1-in-30 million catch. But one of the most astounding finds of all came in 2011, when a British fisherman caught an albino lobster — estimated to be a 1-in-100 million catch. The 30-year-old lobster, which somehow avoided predators despite being easier to spot in the sea, didn’t end up on a dinner table. Instead, it was donated to the Weymouth Sea Life aquarium in England. 

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Email