Have you ever been pricked by a thorny plant while strolling in a garden?
You would have certainly disliked it as it is a painful experience. But have you ever wondered if plants could also be feeling pain? Humans, in general, are against causing any pain to other humans. We also have
strong laws against it. We also talk about not causing pain to other
animals and it is good that things like animal rights do exist. But we never talk about the
pain of trees. The reason being that we can relate to the pain of other
humans and animals but not to the pain of plants. We can feel pain, so we empathise with those
who can also feel pain the way we feel it, be it humans or other
animals. We don't think this way about plants, possibly because may be their body
structure is entirely different from ours. We forget that they also have a DNA (humans share fifty percent of their DNA with bananas). We still refuse to empathise with
them and ignore that their pain might be having a different manifestation. But why do we reject this idea of plants having feelings and overlook
this possibility?
Absence of nervous system- It is argued
that plants are not intelligent enough to sense pain as they do not have a nervous system. This point is valid if we assume that a neural network
is the only sign of intelligence and feelings in nature. But there are
many areas in which plants show amazing intelligence.
Intelligence in plants- The smartness of plants is reflected by many things. One of
them is their ability to communicate with each other. Most of us enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass in summers. That smell is actually a
chemical distress call by grass. Different scents are given out by plants for different types of threats. For example, when there is a threat from caterpillars, a scent is given out which makes neighbouring plants to become bitter and this bitter taste is disliked by caterpillars. Also, when a plant senses that it is under attack, it tries to attract other helpful creatures which might kill attackers. Plants can also communicate through roots (like the movie Avatar) and pass useful information about diseases to their neighbouring plants. And, plants like dodder can locate and move towards their host. Intelligence of plants is also proven by the fact that they can sense gravity and light and then grow accordingly (check out this link).
Finding feelings - An Indian scientist J C Bose (one of
the fathers of radio science), conducted experiments on plant
perception in 1900. He found plants responded to a shock by spasms just like animals. He demonstrated the electrical nature of conduction of stimuli like wounds and cuts in plants which were earlier thought to be of chemical nature. He also claimed that plants have feelings by observing the variation in cell membrane potential under various circumstances.
According to researchers at University of Bonn,
plants cry and signal it by releasing gases. By using a highly sensitive
microphone, scientists have observed sound waves produced by plants
releasing gases when injured. Cucumbers have been sensed screaming when
sick and flowers crying when their leaves are cut. But at the same time, many experiments have shown no such emotions in plants.
So, we can not exactly say whether plants have feelings or not as there are no concrete results and scientific consensus is missing. But then, we also do not exactly know so many things about working of plants. We can neither accept nor reject the idea of plants having emotions. Plants are obviously not like a piece of rock. They are surely much smarter and can sense their environment. We know now that plants might be feeling pain even without a brain.
http://science.howstuffworks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/humans-share-50-dna-bananas-2482139
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