Have you ever spotted your houseplant crying? Don’t worry, you didn’t make it too sad by playing a bunch of Taylor Swift albums in a row. It’s a phenomenon called gutation
where plants release water through structures in their leaves called hideathode
. Plants will sometimes do this to relieve internal pressure at their roots and when humidity is high these droplets don’t evaporate away as quickly as they are excreted, so they hang around on the leaves.
Some plants will purge toxins through gutation
and others will even release excess minerals and other compounds in their droplets and those can actually drip back into the soil and make it even more nutritious for their own growth, a kind of save the rest for later
approach. One study even showed that of different varieties of rice, the more fluid they released through gutation
the bigger their yield, so gutation
seems to be related to even healthier plants overall.
All in all, if you spot a weepy houseplant, don’t worry, it’s natural and you’re probably not failing as a Plant Parent.