A way for druids to talk to plants

[RangerWickett]

Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative

Plants emit species- and stress-specific airborne sounds that can be detected in acoustic chambers and greenhouses.

www.cell.com

A study in the journal Cell has discovered ways in which plants emit sounds when they are stressed.

If you have druid PC, you might work this in somehow.

 

[GMMichael]

Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative

Plants emit species- and stress-specific airborne sounds that can be detected in acoustic chambers and greenhouses.

www.cell.com

A study in the journal Cell has discovered ways in which plants emit sounds when they are stressed.

If you have druid PC, you might work this in somehow.

I can see it now:

Druid leans close to young tree.

"Are you going to tell me what I want to know?"

Tree doesn't respond.

Druid grabs a branch and bends it in half.

"Are you gonna tell me now? HUH!?"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I wonder how this will impact the vegetarians and vegans for whom wanting to not hurt animals is their motivating factor. (There are a lot of reasons people become vegetarians or vegans, but this is one of the big ones.) If your tomato plant can feel pain and fear, what makes it different than the pain and fear felt by a pig?

As far as D&D goes, being able to communicate with plants via sound, rather than smells or humidity, is pretty dang cool, especially since the sound pulses seem a lot more rapid than Entish.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, it can announce distress, but is that the same as 'feeling' distress?

My smoke alarm can announce distress, but I think a vegan would feel ethically comfortable eating it.

Perhaps not physically comfortable, of course.

 

[gamerprinter]

Well I've read different articles over the years, or saw videos that showed how plants have kind of 'nervous system', where radiative particles were put into a plant, and causing distress to a leave on side, sends information across it's 'system' that lets the entire plant 'know' what and where distress is happening.

I've read an article where tree groves are interconnected, especially via it's root system, where touching root systems underground create a connection and 'awareness' of other plants/trees in it's system. Trees that are ailing due to some disease will be sustained by trees around it. Sometimes a tree is cut down, but the remaining stump has an intact root system, and even without foilage can be kept alive for decades by the trees around it - keeping the stump alive.

Now this suggests trees in distress emit sounds...

Apparently the botanical systems of trees are so complex, in some ways possess features that are handled with different systems for animals, but have similar utilization in ways we are only beginning to understand. Perhaps, just as animals, once we figure out how to do it, there are probably more effective means of communication and interactions with plantlife...

 

[Bohandas]

Well I've read different articles over the years, or saw videos that showed how plants have kind of 'nervous system', where radiative particles were put into a plant, and causing distress to a leave on side, sends information across it's 'system' that lets the entire plant 'know' what and where distress is happening.

That's just inflammation.

If you get bitten by a mosquito an area much larger than the actual bite will have swollen up long before you actually feel it

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's just inflammation.

If you get bitten by a mosquito an area much larger than the actual bite will have swollen up long before you actually feel it

That's the same argument tigers use when they eat humans.

 

[gamerprinter]

That's just inflammation.

If you get bitten by a mosquito an area much larger than the actual bite will have swollen up long before you actually feel it

You're assuming a lot based on no information. No it's not just inflammation.

Youtube video showing plant nervous system

 

[GMMichael]

I wonder how this will impact the vegetarians and vegans for whom wanting to not hurt animals is their motivating factor. (There are a lot of reasons people become vegetarians or vegans, but this is one of the big ones.) If your tomato plant can feel pain and fear, what makes it different than the pain and fear felt by a pig?

Life feeds on life (feeds on life). Some of these vegans might have to switch to this weird animal-free meat I've heard about a couple of times now.

As far as D&D goes, being able to communicate with plants via sound, rather than smells or humidity, is pretty dang cool, especially since the sound pulses seem a lot more rapid than Entish.

Everything is more rapid than Entish. But I thought they just used magic in D&D?

 

[gamerprinter]

Life feeds on life (feeds on life). Some of these vegans might have to switch to this weird animal-free meat I've heard about a couple of times now.

That's based on a fungus that grows in hot springs pools... yuck!

 

[Hand of Evil]

So, I guess someone does hear it when a tree falls in the forest. S

I think I would do a simple language and then a more complex one. The simple is the background noise of a forest, a general emotion of contentment, fear, concern, curiosity, and such that a druid could pick up while moving through the area. The more complex would be thoughts and communication with individual plants and take a bit more effort and contact.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Everything is more rapid than Entish. But I thought they just used magic in D&D?

As a DM, I like to express things in ways other than "by magic, you now know X." Having speak with plants work like a burst of Morse code is interesting and flavorful, IMO.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's based on a fungus that grows in hot springs pools... yuck!

I have bad news about your distant ancestors.

 

[gamerprinter]

I have bad news about your distant ancestors.

I lost the taste for that food about 1.5 billion years ago. My ancestors just didn't understand 'taste' like I do...

 

[Emberashh]

Well, it can announce distress, but is that the same as 'feeling' distress?

That opens up the question of what the functional difference is between something that can't feel pain because reasons and something else that can't feel pain because reasons, and what basis we're using to rank which reasons are better or worse.

As for the topic at hand, the popping sounds make for an interesting basis for plant language, particularly as you could arguably speak it vocally or non-vocally, as all you'd need is some maneuverable appendage that lets you make a range of such sounds; a language that sounds identical whether spoken or signed.

 

[Bohandas]

I mean, we know from personal experience that you can have a physiological reaction to something and either not feel it at all or not feel it until after the physiological reaction has occurred.

I've nicked myself shaving many times without feeling it. The nicks still scabbed up.

 

[Bill Zebub]

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Anyone can talk to a plant. The question is, will it be of any effect.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Would be interesting to sing to the plants, rock, heavy metal, etc. Druid having parties in the woods, losers of the battle of the bands being sacrificed to the trees.

 

[Ben from Periapt Games]

Acacia trees notably can tell when they are being damaged (eaten by giraffes) and react by sending a signal of ethylene gas. Acacias which detect this gas pump unpleasant-tasting tannins into their leaves as a deterrent.