Yes, it’s possible, and you don’t need a plant that moves to see something. You can read our paper on electrophysiological responses in plants.
2024 - Electrofisiology in Plantas.pdf (2.2 MB)
Short answers to your questions:
- We tested 16 species and got responses from 9, including non-movers like basil, tomato, mint, rosemary, ruda, and sundew. Basil and tomato were the most reliable.
- Touch works for Mimosa/Flytrap because they have specialized sensor cells. For everything else, flame is the stimulus we used, touch generally won’t trigger a response.
- A 2-4 second flame to the leaf tip is enough. The response shows up about 3-6 seconds later.
- Tomato or basil is the easiest starting point: wrap a wire around the stem, apply gel, ground in the soil, then flame a leaf tip and watch for a delayed signal. Expect some trial-to-error.
You can always test different approaches and try your own experiments, we’d be more than happy to see your results.
Hope this helps!
Best,
Marija