Do plants feel pain?

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Some people say they do. I don't think they do. If they do, things must be pretty bad for them because they can't move to get away from the pain.

Plants do not feel pain because (1) the have no sensory nervous systems and (2) they have no brain.

Those so-called "experiments" where shrimp were dumped at random into boiling water while an EKG machine recorded the plants' alleged reactions were slip-shod and irreplicable.  Thus, there is no valid empirical evidence to support the claim that plants feel pain.

Can you clarify what you mean by "pain"? Do you mean reacting to negative stimuli?

Plants have been shown to react to stimuli, every organism does, but they lack the necessary components to feel actual sensation. They don't have brains or nociceptors, so there's nothing to process that stimuli into what we know as "pain". Microorganisms are similar. They can react, but it's doubtful that they have complex enough systems to feel pain.

I hope not. I worry that they might suffer with thirst if I don't water them.

Does coronavirus germs feel pain?

Without a sensory nervous system I'd say plants have as much chance of being able to feel pain as do toasters and lawn mowers.

Feel? Suffer??
Is that sympathetic guilt I saw? And nervous systems, really?

In such contexts and in such parameters, I'd say no.


To say they 'feel pain', have a concept of suffering or not remains one fact;
The plant/s is/are being (at certain state) and (re)acts accordingly to it.

Just be friendly to nature. Respect it.



Anyone who tries to ask questions beyond of that parameters, won't get answers by asking for assurances to counter or confirm guilt.


Tis' all.

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I disagree with Fnord on this one.

I haven’t heard of the shrimp study he referenced, but I have read of others - mostly in one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read: “The Secret Life of Plants.” A couple mentions in there about plants feeling pain and other emotions. Also, there are studies showing plants communicate with each other in various ways including the release of chemicals to warn of danger or through vast networks of underground mycelium beneath the forest floor, and with people almost telepathically, and also about how they organize themselves in sort of social hierarchy structures within forests with older stronger trees protecting others, plants sharing water/nutrients.. heck, trees even have a “pulse,” of their vascular systems that they control via their limbs’ motions to pump water up and throughout their extremities.

Plants are a lot more evolved than most of us realize. They’ve been here a lot longer than us, after all.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

no but they sure as hell can cause it.

lucky bastards

There is a Last Of The Summer Wine called "Flower Power Cut" which goes into detail about plants having feelings. It is worth watching.

When trees and flowers are putting out pollen (either wind driven, or insect/bird/bat driven) I imagine them having a ….sexual orgasm. It IS after all...the plant equivalent of ejaculation. All of those trees putting out that stuff that makes you sneeze in the springtime...they are all in carnal XTC while you sneeze. But being plants its in extreeemly SLOW motion. It takes weeks for them to complete a thought, or a sensation, that we would complete in less than a second.

Just like when plants fight each other. To us it doesn't look like a fight when a strangler fig trees takes months to strangle another tree, or when honey suckle festoons your rose bushes. But to the plants involved its like a Jackie Chan action movie!

As much as I want to believe that all living beings have feelings, plants aren't able to feel pain because they generally lack a nervous system.

Plus, sometimes, plants are able to regrow and regenerate, just as long as the damage they suffer from isn't TOO bad.