The study of the electrical properties of plants is sleepy backwater of botany that has never generated widespread interest or finding. For example, in 1995 one group carefully evaluated the physiological state of a cucumber by measuring it electrical impedance. Others have done the same for olive trees. That’s surely interesting work but hardly likely to set the world on fire.
Today, Andrew Adamatzky at the University of the West of England in Bristol argues that the electrical properties of plants have been overlooked. And he takes one step to putting this right by measuring the electrical properties of lettuce seedlings, just three or four days after they’ve sprouted.
