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scorch_22 asked in Science & MathematicsBotany · 1 decade ago

Can plants feel pain? Even if we don't know is it theoretically possible?

Personally, I have come to the unfortunate opinion that at least some plants probably can feel some sort of pain. Plants have some sort of senosry ability,we know this because they will grow in the direction of sunlight, some plants will bend to follow sunlight as a daily routine. What do you think? Any sort of sources to back up your belief?

Update:

I find the argument that plants 'just have a chemical reaction' be be mildly weak, because thats all that is happening in humans too. We are having a chemical reaction to stimulus, your not feeling pain strictly because of your nerves, your feeling pain because various chemicals in your body make this possible. I am not saying plants do feel pain, as lack of nerves make it quite possible they don't, I just don't think its very easy to assume one way or another.

3 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Who cares?

    They make good veggie stews.

  • peltz
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    actual plant life can respond to the environmental transformations so technically speaking you're KILLING a plant. The plant has to devour and soak up food for foodstuff. They die at the same time as their roots are shrink off. at the same time as they die they turn brown from the shortcoming of oxygen because the chloraplast end function. They did a study the position they performed rock song in a room and yet another with classical song playing. they realized the room with the rock song, the plant life did not strengthen ok in spite of the undeniable fact that those with classical song grew a lot more advantageous than the only in the different room. also venus fly traps and different plant life like toadstools devour or could I say digest different creatures for nitrogen and food. each and every thing has thoughts, plant life get one yet another pregnant and characteristic offspring from their seeds. in the experience that they doesn't count number as being alive then you honestly are a hipocrite for no longer ingesting meat. i do not care if i'm getting a thumbs down, you are able to forget concerning the actual actuality and stay ignorant about plant life having living purposes. i'll stay knowledgeable and a meat eater.

  • 1 decade ago

    They used to say Mandrake root screamed when picked. That a plant has a reaction to stimulus doesn't neccesarily constitute "feelings", since feelings are an interpretation of stimulus. As in the case of varying levels of pain threshold.

    Each root apex harbours a unit of nervous system of plants. The number of root apices in the plant body is high and all brain-units are interconnected via vascular strands (plant nerves) with their polarly-transported auxin (plant neurotransmitter), to form a serial (parallel) nervous system of plants. The computational and informational capacity of this nervous system based on interconnected parallel units is predicted to be higher than that of the diffuse nervous system of lower animals, or the central nervous system of higher animals/humans.

    Also:

    Members of PETP (People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants) should be happy with this week's episode of Mythbusters. They hooked up a machine to a plant then tortured the plant. The machine showed the plant reacting. Even just thinkng of torturing the plant caused a reaction. The episode was based on Cleve Backster work.

    In the study of paranormal phenomenon Plant perception, or biocommunication in plant cells, has come to mean a belief that plants feel emotions such as fear and affection. Believers hold that plants have the ability to communicate with humans and other forms of life in a recognizable manner. While plants can communicate through chemical signals, and certainly have complex responses to stimuli, the belief that they possess advanced cognitive abilities receives little support except in the parapsychology studies community and among believers in the Gaia hypothesis.

    Published in 1973, The Secret Life of Plants was written by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. It is described as "A fascinating account of the physical, emotional, and spiritual relations between plants and man."

    Essentially, the subject of the book is the idea that plants may be sentient, despite their lack of a nervous system. This sentience is observed primarily through changes in the plant's conductivity, as through a polygraph, as pioneered by Cleve Backster. The book also contains a summary of Goethe's theory of plant metamorphosis.

    Source(s): Taken from the study at: http://ds9.botanik.uni-bonn.de/zellbio/AG-Baluska-... Mythbusters
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