Working from home, I get to read a lot of emails from far and wide. Some have charming greetings and sign offs that brighten my day. I received one the other day that concluded with …”we understand the delphinium”.
Neither sender nor recipient are professional botanists, so the reference to Delphiniums is a head scratcher. Communicating with plants is a great leap forward for human beings. I have cursed stinging nettles and asked grass to grow slower, but to no avail.
I must be doing it wrong.. Are ears of wheat receptive to the spoken word? If so, how do they speak to us? Is their vocal range so high pitched that we are oblivious to their reponses? Perhaps my email correspondent was alerted to floral speech by her dog noddding sagely at the Delphiniums in her garden. The most likely explanation, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Recording the Delphiniums, tweaking their sound waves, and translating their messages is a remarkable achievement, and one that has yet to be hailed by scientific journalism. You read it here first.
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