Do Plants have the ability to sense pain or think

Vigelic SG

Pain (noun)
An unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder.

Basically pain is just a word to describe the bunch of electric signals that the nerve endings send to the human brain when it detects or senses something it deems is "bad" for the human system.

In this case, plants can be said to feel no "pain" - at least not in the human context of it since they do not have a central "brain" - which also means they are not able to "think" in the human context.

remember that the words pain and think are formed by humans, because otherwise we have no other way to describe these two functions of the human body.

However, although plants cannot "think" or feel "pain", it can definitely "sense" it - although there might be no english word to describe it proper.

A lot of pple have mentioned the touch me not plant above.

Human - touch boiling kettle of water, high temperature touches skin - nerve endings transfer "pain" signal to brain, brain instructs hand and finger to move away from the boiling pot of kettle

Plant (touch me not) - foreign object touches leaves, immediate defence - close leaves to avoid getting hurt <<< pain? not really. but kind of. yet I can't think of a proper word to describe it.

ok i'm lazy but u get my point. they are able to "think" as well just not the way humans do.

in short, this is another discussion which boils down to what we understand base on language.

Just look at human to human examples. Eskimos at the poles have so many different words in their language to refer to snow. English has only one - snow. Any other different snow has to be prefixed with an adjective. Thick snow? Thin snow? white snow? grey snow? There's no way you're going to introduce all the different types of snow to someone in english without showing that person the different types itself. Why? because the people who invented English don't live at the poles.

aiya i hope u all understand wad i talking la.

References:
pain. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved August 05, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pain

TheGoodEarth SG

You have done some research and the explanation is logical. Put it simply - all living things are able to sense and response depending on what sense organs they have. The fact that they can response to external stimuli - sunlight and water, is an indication that plant do have sense organs. Just because you can't sense the way plants sense doesn't mean they cannot 'feel'. Have you observed ants when they meet each other? They seemed to talk to one another but we can't hear nor understand!

As for thinking part, it is still uncertain. The general consensus is that a brain is necessary for thinking but I disagree. Humans have brain but quite a number cannot think!

I think this question arises because of vegetarianism. Vegetarians abstain from meat because killing is involved, not because of feeling of pain by the animals. But to say that plants have no feeling is not correct.

So, what is the position of vegetarians on this?

rathcycle SG

what bull
i also know how to do research like this loh
he just copying defination from dictionary.com....
and add in a few own comments

like this i also do alot research

PLANT
noun
1. any member of the kingdom Plantae, comprising multicellular organisms that typically produce their own food from inorganic matter by the process of photosynthesis and that have more or less rigid cell walls containing cellulose, including vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, and hornworts: some classification schemes may include fungi, algae, bacteria, blue-green algae, and certain single-celled eukaryotes that have plantlike qualities, as rigid cell walls or photosynthesis.
2. an herb or other small vegetable growth, in contrast with a tree or a shrub.
3. a seedling or a growing slip, esp. one ready for transplanting.
4. the equipment, including the fixtures, machinery, tools, etc., and often the buildings, necessary to carry on any industrial business: a manufacturing plant.
5. the complete equipment or apparatus for a particular mechanical process or operation: the heating plant for a home.
6. the buildings, equipment, etc., of an institution: the sprawling plant of the university.
7. Slang. something intended to trap, decoy, or lure, as criminals.
8. Slang. a scheme to trap, trick, swindle, or defraud.
9. a person, placed in an audience, whose rehearsed or prepared reactions, comments, etc., appear spontaneous to the rest of the audience.
10. a person placed secretly in a group or organization, as by a foreign government, to obtain internal or secret information, stir up discontent, etc.
11. Theater. a line of dialogue, or a character, action, etc., introducing an idea or theme that will be further developed at a later point in the play: Afterward we remembered the suicide plant in the second act.
verb (used with object)
12. to put or set in the ground for growth, as seeds, young trees, etc.
13. to furnish or stock (land) with plants: to plant a section with corn.
14. to establish or implant (ideas, principles, doctrines, etc.): to plant a love for learning in growing children.
15. to introduce (a breed of animals) into a country.
16. to deposit (young fish, or spawn) in a river, lake, etc.
17. to bed (oysters).
18. to insert or set firmly in or on the ground or some other body or surface: to plant posts along a road.
19. Theater. to insert or place (an idea, person, or thing) in a play.
20. to place; put.
21. to place with great force, firmness, or determination: He planted himself in the doorway as if daring us to try to enter. He planted a big kiss on his son's cheek.
22. to station; post: to plant a police officer on every corner.
23. to locate; situate: Branch stores are planted all over.
24. to establish (a colony, city, etc.); found.
25. to settle (persons), as in a colony.
26. to say or place (something) in order to obtain a desired result, esp. one that will seem spontaneous: The police planted the story in the newspaper in order to trap the thief.
27. Carpentry. to nail, glue, or otherwise attach (a molding or the like) to a surface.
28. to place (a person) secretly in a group to function as a spy or to promote discord.
29. Slang. to hide or conceal, as stolen goods.
[Origin: bef. 900; (n.) ME plaunte; in part continuing OE plante sapling, young plant (< L planta); in part (< OF plante) < L planta a shoot, sprig, scion (for planting), plant; (v.) ME plaunten; in part continuing OE plantian (< L plantāre); in part (< OF planter) < L plantāre to plant]
O.E. plante "young tree or shrub, herb newly planted," from L. planta "sprout, shoot, cutting," perhaps from *plantare "to drive in with the feet, push into the ground with the feet," from planta "sole of the foot," from nasalized form of PIE *plat- "flat" (see place (n.)). Ger. Pflanze, Ir. cland, Welsh plant are from Latin. Broader sense of "any vegetable life" is first recorded 1551. The verb, "put in the ground to grow," is O.E. plantian, from L. plantare, from planta. Most extended usages are from the verbal sense. Sense of a building "planted" or begun for an industrial process is first attested 1789. Slang meaning "a spy" is first recorded 1812. Planter "proprietor of a cultivated estate in W.Indies or southern colonies of N.America" is attested from 1647; hence planter's punch (1924).

now,
praise me ! Laughing Embarassed

xalkyrie SG

text o' wall ftw!

yuko-ogura SG

Rolling Eyes
at least he bothered to give some evaluation.
u din.

rathcycle SG

Embarassed

newcomer SG

plants? just step on it.

Vigelic SG

it’s amazing how every intellectual discussion on sgforums eventually dwindles down to nonsense. Why bother to start any proper discussion in the first place?

AugoeideS SG

One of the forumite had already said it, plants lack of the nervous system, hence they do not feel the pain. Let's see, if you had a local anaethesia, you wouldn't feel pain would you? That's because your nerves at that region is numbed, imagine plants having their nerves numbed forever, and that's the pain plants would experience.

Well, you can't assume that plants do have feeling just because tree 1 got killed by parasite and thus convey a signal to tell other trees to build up their immune response against parasite.

Cells do have this form of response as well, against viruses that is, viral infected cells do send out signals call the interferons to nearby cells so that these cells will start producing enzymes that would defend them against the viruses. I wouldn't call that "feeling".

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