Above ground, plants can seem fairly simple, but below, there is a rich world full of hidden activity. To promote their growth, plants secrete chemicals from their roots that can affect the soil and air around them. This helps them adapt to environmental conditions, stressors, and pathogens. But how these chemicals affect the plants’ microbiota is poorly understood. A recent study evaluated chemical interactions between peanut plants and cassava, which are often co-cultivated. The researchers found that cassava plants produced cyanide, which induced stress in peanut plants. This caused the peanut plants to emit ethylene, a volatile hormone that diffuses through gas and water in the soil. Ehtylene, in turn, attracted specific microbial species that helped to remineralize the soil, ensuring that the peanut plants could increase their yield alongside cassava. This suggests that when plants alter their soil environment, part of the equation is the effects that root-secreted chemicals have on the surrounding microbes, adding another layer to the complex hidden communication that occurs under the soil.