Electrical signaling in green plants: Action potentials

It is well known that green plants display complex electric activity. They generate a wide spectrum of electric effects that can be registered with the help of external electrodes and appropriate measuring devices. Some of the effects observed are passive reflections of the totality of biochemical and biophysical processes within a plant: whereas some other effects play the role of active signals that arise as a response of a plant to various external influences. These signals propagate with significant velocity for large distances along plant tissues and can cause remote effects in a plant. Electrical signals. from green plants can be of substantial use for monitoring the environment. In this paper we describe mechanisms of plant signaling and present advantages of computerized high-speed data acquisition.