Does trees have feelings? Justify the statement.
Like us does Trees also feel pain when we cut them?
Answers
Can plants detect when they are damaged? Certain plants emit chemicals when their leaves are fed upon by insects that actually attract wasps that feed on those insects, or which signal other trees to boost production of anti-feeding chemicals. That's impressive, but it is not pain. No nerves are involved. It's just chemistry, similar to how your skin increases melanin production when exposed to sunlight. Case in point: if you damage the leaves of these plants using mechanical tools, no chemicals are released.
As for stories that plants make sounds or "scream" when cut, or can "sense" when leaves are burned, they are 100% garbage. Lots of really bad research exists trying to "prove" that plants can feel or think or communicate with humans or extraterrestrials. Such tales are pseudoscience, or even science fiction or urban legends. Lots of research on Plant perception (paranormal) has been done, including ideas that plants can sense when other creatures feel pain using ESP, but nothing in any peer reviewed journals. Plant ESP was disproven by authors of a Science paper (and by the Mythbusters for what it's worth). These are all moot points since, without nerves, nothing can feel pain. Plants are cool enough as they are: anthropomorphizing them is not necessary.
EDIT: I see a lot of people believe plants feel pain "just like every other living thing." Since when is pain a requirement of life? Why not photosynthesis, or thermoregulation, or sight, or olfaction? What makes nociception (sense of pain) special? The fact is not all living things need to feel pain! It is not essential to life or survival, and it would be useless for plants that cannot move to escape pain. Worse: it would be torture.
Besides, certain rare humans cannot feel pain either! See: CIPA. If living people exist physically incapable of pain, it is hardly a stretch to say other life forms exist that cannot feel pain either. Those who insist plants feel pain like humans are blinded to the beauty of botany and diversity of life, falsly assuming human experiences and senses are the blueprint all life must share. That is arrogant at worst, a pity at best. Life without pain, emotion, or even consciousness is possible. Open your mind to the possibility that life can differ from your own, and you will be astounded by how much stranger the truth is to fiction.
No.
Plants don’t have feelings. The way we know this is quite simple: plants don’t have a nervous system. They simply don’t have the processing power required to hold any sort of consciousness, and as a result can’t process anything that resembles feelings.
However, plants are capable of complex interaction with their environment. That is the only thing loosely demonstrated in the video; it’s also trivial to demonstrate at home if you go out and buy a Venus fly trap. In fact, complex interaction with the environment is sometimes used as part of the definition of life; it’s also present in unicellular organisms. Plants even use hormones to communicate signals between cells to mediate some multicellular processes, such as growth and ripening of fruit. In particular in relation to this question, plant cells produce and spread certain chemicals (such as jasmonic acid) in situations of “stress”, such as sweeping movements by an animal. This tells other cells to start producing proteins used for reinforcement and healing.
Nature is pretty impressive. But plants still don’t have feelings.
Hope this helps!
