SPEC // 0142
LISTENING
RES.HZ 38.2
we record the songs of plants — and we think they are happy
FIELD LOG
06:14 · Asplenium nidus · session opened · res.peak 38.2 Hz
05:51 · Phalaenopsis amabilis · capillary hum recorded · 14m32s
05:30 · Selaginella lepidophylla · moisture uptick · mood: hopeful
05:02 · Adiantum raddianum · leaf-tilt drift logged · 6.1°
04:48 · Monstera deliciosa · low-frequency rumble · 9.0 Hz
04:20 · Nepenthes ventricosa · pitcher resonance · faintly amused
Adiantum raddianum
A maidenhair fern with the lightest leaflets in the conservatory — they shiver at the slightest draft, and the apparatus reads each shiver as a small bright note. We have been listening for three days. It seems, mostly, to be telling jokes.
- Transpiration rate: nominal, faintly enthusiastic
- Leaf-tilt drift: 6.1° over the morning — restless, in a good way
- Capillary pressure: steady — the fern is well, and not lonely
42.7 Hz · peak of the week
Monstera deliciosa
A big calm leaf that hums low — 9 Hz, like distant weather. We think it is dreaming about rain.
9.0 Hz
Nepenthes ventricosa
The pitcher plant's resonance is round and hollow — faintly amused, the operator wrote, then drew a small smile.
21.0 Hz
on what the conservatory heard last night
After the visitors left, the apparatus kept listening. The ferns went quiet first, then the orchid, then — near 03:00 — a single sustained tone from the resurrection moss, holding for nine minutes. We have no explanation. We have written it down. The moss, in the morning, seemed pleased with itself.
02:11Asplenium nidus31.5 Hz
02:44Phalaenopsis amabilis26.0 Hz
03:01Selaginella lepidophylla— sustained —
04:30Adiantum raddianum39.9 Hz
"It is not that the plants are speaking. It is that, given a sensitive enough listener, everything alive turns out to have been humming all along."
— field log, vol. xi, marginalia