Abstract Vicia sativa, is a leguminous species able to germinate, grow in the presence of phenol and remove this contaminant. However, there are not reports concerning the signals triggered by the pollutant and how plants perceive and transduce this signal in order to adapt to adverse conditions. Phosphatidic acid (PA) has been proposed as a key messenger in plants and it can be generated via phospholipase D (PLD) or via phospholipase C (PLC) coupled to diacylglycerol kinase (DGK). Thus, changes in this minor phospholipid and in enzymes involved in its catabolism were analyzed after treatment with phenol (25 and 100 mg L−1). The results obtained, seem to suggest that the higher concentration could be sensed as a stressful signal, since a rapid (1.5 h) and transient increase in PA, via PLD and a second wave of increase possibly via PLC/DGK was observed after 96 h of exposure with 100 mg L−1 of phenol. Besides, a markedly increase in enzymes related with PA metabolism, mainly DGK, phosphatidylinositol kinase (PIK) and PA kinase (PAK), was detected after long term treatment. Thus, this study highlighted the key role of minor phospholipids, especially PA, in the transduction pathway induced by phenol.