From a strictly scientific standpoint, I know there's been a number of studies that show they do indeed produce chemical reactions to being cut, torn, shocked, burned, etc. So in that sense, it's entirely plausible that they may feel something that is the equivalent of pain. They just can't scream to let us know about it.

I also seem to remember reading something somewhere that plants grown while listening to classical music seemed to do better than a similar control group without the classical music.

Really though, it depends on your view of plants in the world. Are plants alive? Do they have feelings? If your answer to these questions are yes, then yes, they would feel pain.

 

I really hope they don't. The thought of a million blades of grass screaming as they are decapitated while I mow the lawn makes my skin crawl.

 

:shifty:

I can live with that.

When this story breaks and PETA launches PETP, what will we end up eating?

 

Plants are living beings. Why wouldn't they feel pain?

 

Well from a strictly scientific standpoint, they certainly have a "nervous" system structure that reacts to the introduction of negative stimuli.

Here's a link that points to a scientific study done on the very subject.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_can_a_plant_feel_pain_without_a_nervous_system

 

I do not believe that plants feel pains. They possess neither a brain nor a central nervous system. Think about it. How cruel would it be for them as they have no fight or flight recourse?

 

yet with the absence of a brain, the receptors for the processing are not available.

 

How, since processing is not possible?

 

because they don't have a central nervous system :wink2:

but just in case I just went outside and threatened to tear all the little arms off my grass if it started growing again

 

why you trippin? ;)

 

pretty loud in there huh..

 

someone asked about everglades water flow once and I was just expounding all over the subject and one of my buddies gets up, walks over, tilts his head a little and STARES into my right eye, like he was looking through it.. I looked back.. he then said deadpan, "it's REALLY loud in there isn't it?" shook his head and walked away.. that was 20 years ago and I still hear comments if I get going in the right company.. what else are friends for except to remind you of every stupid damn thing the saw you do. bastiches.

I KNOW lucky, so you ain't foolin' me... echo indeed... you've got voices too.

 

I agree with Lisa and others who are of the opinion that plants don't have the mechanisms in place to feel the sensation we call "pain". Pain is a defensive trigger that forces "higher" animals to move away from or immediately deal with a potentially dangerous threat. I think we all agree that plants are not all that into "moving".

There is no doubt that plants respond to physical stimuli by differentially regulating proteins and signal transduction pathways to respond to changes in their physical environment (draught, elevated salt, heat, etc) in the same way all living creatures do but I would not expect those stimuli to trigger a pain response.

 

That's an easy one! Haven't you seen The Happening? It's all true! The plants are gonna make us pay for all the pain!

 

I do believe plants are in a sense alive. They even evolve poisons, barbs and other weapons to defend themselves against enemies. Just because they can't get up and walk away or scream out doesn't mean they aren't alive. A rock is something that isn't alive.

Also we assume that just because humans work a certain way that there can't be another way for a proccess to work. I don't agree with that logic.

 

Plants are alive in every sense. They're fully living beings.

 

dang, snippy :tongue2:

i don't know about the whole pain in plants thing, but someone mentioned the plants and music test. i did that as a science project in 6th grade and recently saw it done on mythbusters as well. the plants DID grow differently to different variables. was slightly interesting.

 

It wasn't meant to be that way. I was just in a hurry. :lol:

There is no doubt that plants respond to stimuli, but they do not feel pain. The pain response is thought to have evolved to give higher animals immediate feedback when they are in danger so that they can withdraw from the danger. The transmission of pain stimuli requires nerves to sense the danger and transmit it and a brain to interpret it. Plants have neither nor do they have a way to withdraw from the source of the stimuli.

 

don't need ta be so smart. just say "hey, you don't stick your hand on a hot stove twice do ya?, well a plant will!"

:lol:

 

Piggybacking on this ... I would say it is proper to say plants react, but they do not feel.

 

So my first wife.....was a plant?

 

:rimshot: