This is the first time they have measured the magnetic field of a plant . The carnivorous Venus flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula ). This plant uses the rapid closure of its leaves to successfully trap flies that, once they fall into the trap, have no escape. But their operation is exceptionally rare : most carnivorous plants prefer more passive methods, such as inward-pointing hairs or slippery slopes. But in this case, when it detects movement, an electrical signal is transmitted inside the plant, stimulating the leaves to close within a second, a surprisingly fast movement by plant standards.
Thus, as if carrying out an MRI on humans, a team of researchers from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz managed to measure magnetic signals in this plant using atomic magnetometers.
“We have been able to demonstrate that action potentials in a multicellular plant system produce measurable magnetic fields, something that has never been confirmed before, ” the authors comment in their study published in the journal Nature .
“The magnitude of the recorded signal is similar to that observed during surface measurements of nerve impulses in animals,” they comment. As an example, a fridge magnet is around 20 billion times stronger than this.
The researchers believe that there are other plants that produce magnetic fields, but they are likely to be even weaker and therefore more difficult to detect.
Referencia: Fabricant, A., Iwata, G.Z., Scherzer, S. et al. Action potentials induce biomagnetic fields in carnivorous Venus flytrap plants. Sci Rep 11, 1438 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81114-w
