JRE #2467 - Michael Pollan · Aired Mar 14, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
The smell of a freshly mown lawn is a 'chemical scream' released by plants to attract predatory insects to attack their herbivores.
The finding
What the evidence shows
FML (freshly mown lawn) odors are 'Green Leaf Volatiles' (GLVs) that serve as distress signals to warn other plants and attract beneficial predators, but 'scream' is an anthropomorphic metaphor for a chemical signaling process.
Read the supporting source · www.sciencedirect.com ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that the smell of a freshly mown lawn is a 'chemical scream' released by plants to attract predatory insects to attack their herbivores?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. FML (freshly mown lawn) odors are 'Green Leaf Volatiles' (GLVs) that serve as distress signals to warn other plants and attract beneficial predators, but 'scream' is an anthropomorphic metaphor for a chemical signaling process. It was said on JRE #2467 - Michael Pollan, aired Mar 14, 2026, at 74:15. We haven't independently confirmed who said it. The supporting source is sciencedirect.com, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
- Attribution
- Not independently confirmed in this record
- Editorial context review
- Not recorded; generated finding
- Coverage
- One selected claim from the episode
Revisions to this check
No dated revision is recorded here. Older checks may predate this log.
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