Every other Friday, NHPR's Outside/In team answers a listener question about the natural world. This week’s question comes from Jenna in Cupertino, Calif. How do plants communicate with each other?

In the 1960s and '70s, a series of questionable experiments claimed to prove that plants could behave like humans, that they had feelings, responded to music and could even take a polygraph test.

It sounds like a nice joke, doesn't it? The idea that your peace lily is gossiping with your fern, or the tomato plants are coordinating their growth spurts. Well, it's not a joke at all. Plants have ...

Plants exchange adaptive information, helping them to adjust to environmental challenges. Salt stress in plants, caused by soil salinity, often results in water loss. Plants often cope with this ...

In Lena Mueller’s lab at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, dead plants are OK. “Don’t worry, it’s on purpose,” said Kelly Semtner, Mueller’s high school intern, gesturing at a row of wilted ...

Plants are constantly sending chemical messages into the air and soil around them. These invisible signals can summon pollinators, warn neighbors of herbivores, or repel attackers. But new research ...

The machine, with sharp teeth and a long metal rod, sounds like a kitchen blender, but this is far from your average appliance. “This is a tissue homogenizer,” said Jesse Woodson, an associate ...