Wheather plants have natural attraction or repulsion within themselves as the human beings have ?

Question

In human beings male is naturally attracted towards females. Also some people have liking for a certain set of people (having common likings/dislikings) and disliking for other set of people. I want to know whether similar phenomenon also exists among trees/plants etc.

Answer 1

Hi Naveen,
That question is interesting, and requires some basic knowledge of evolutionary genetics to answer.
I shall try to make this simple:

The basic unit of life according to the latest views, is the gene. This is bcoz Gene or the genetic material, whether it be RNA or DNA or any other non carbon material for that matter,is the one that posess the most funbamental quality of life- that is to "make a replica of itself and thereby immortalise its own kind" .
Earlier, the ability to respire, the ability to grow in size, the ability to store and handle or transform energy and the ability to interact with the environment were all considered as basic and essential qualities of life. Now the view has changed and what i mentioned earlier holds true.
The genetic material as i told you has only one "aim"and that is procreation! All the interactions we see among living organisms around us is a result of the Genetic Material(gene) trying to create a copy of it successfully and make it survive. "The cell is a way of the gene to make another gene" as Richard Dawkins told once. And when the cell becomes useless on its own to help genes procreate, the gene finds ways to make cells co-operate. Thats how multicellular organisms evolved.

This evolution was very very gradual, i need not stress upon that part. In this view of the living world, Animals, or for that matter Humans are the pinnacle of the gene's experiment for cooperation! Not only does each cell in an animal body work in close harmony with its neighbours, the organism(animal or human) as a whole works and lives in total harmony with others of the same group.
The mechanism of this cooperation is seen in pack-hunting strategies of many social animals like jackal, hyenas, wolves, lions, or the colony of ants , termites ,bees or wasps, or the farmlands of humans or in a modern factory..! This genetic cooperation has evolved innumerable mechanisms to identify common goals, common genetic makeup, and common ideology. This is why in a country, people of the same religion/ political ideology unite for common purposes.This is why,people of the same state unite in the name of language; people of same district unite in the name of region; people of same family unite in the name of blood relation ;brothers or sisters unite in the name of common genes, and finally an individual himself or herself becomes selfish when it comes to his/ her bodily demands...!
How does the one gene identify the presence of another of its own kind in another individual? This is called "green beard effect"..! The concept is simple: A gene has two functions in the body: the first is its true function- to synthesize some protein that the body needs. The second function is that the gene produces some visible character in the body of the individual so that another individual can identify this character and extend its cooperation. A gene can thus make a person's mind more inclined to accept religion as a way of brotherhood/cooperation
(like we see in some terrorist and racist groups) or it can simply tell the individual to cooperate for food.
The lowest level of this sort of cooperation is seen in symbiotic and parasitic relationships in animal or plant or even microscopic world of unicellular organisms. Bacteria live in our gut and help us digest cellulose from veg-food, we provide them a congenial environment to survive and reproduce. This is symbiosis. Parasites usually harm the host and eventually destroy them.Eg: fungi.
Therefore all life forms on earth have likings for some or the other kind of organism. In social animals, the liking is towards individuals of the same species. In other groups, it may be towards a parasite or a symbiont. Some plants in the amazon provide "food" for ants that colonize among their roots, and in turn the ants provide protection to these plants from external animals. Some parasitic plants like those of the orchid family grow on the damp bark of trees, so that they can easily obtain water. Fungi, the group of non-green plants, grow on dead and decaying trees or plants. They lack chlorophyll and use up food made and stored by other green plants.

Hope that gives a rough idea of likes and dislikes among life forms on a whole...
Bye..

Answer 2

Plants have some very basic features in common with humans, such as the existence of DNA, requiring nutrition and water to grow, and (some) separate sexes.

However, humans are many more times more complex than plants. Plants do not show behaviour per se; that is, one plant is unaware that another plant is growing next to it, unless it has a chemical receptor for that kind of thing (fairly rare among plants).

Plants do not have any kind of 'consciousness' - they do not have self-awareness, and are not directed by any central nervous mass to do anything that they do. They grow in response to light and nutrition; their stalks may bend in response to gravity; and they reproduce in response to daylight length, temperature, or other factors.

The closest example I can give you for the phenomenon you describe is in the extremely varied (and beautiful) adaptations plants have undergone over millions of years to reproduce successfully:
- for example, many plants must be pollenated by insects in order for their gametes (sperm and eggs) to meet for sexual reproduction. As such, the sexual organs of some plants (flowers) are adapted to look very similar to the insects that pollenate them - this is so the insect will be drawn to the flower, thinking it is going to mate with another insect, when in fact it is picking up pollen which it will then transfer to another ornately-designed flower.

It is difficult to think of phenomena like these as mindless, nondirected activities, but the solution I find helps me the best is the idea that evolution has been going on for so many millions of years, even before animals were on the earth, and natural selection has resulted in ever-more-specialized organs of plants for their successful reproduction.

Wow, that was a long answer. I hope it was helpful.

Answer 3

there are many different plants. parasites depend on other plants for nutrition, shelter etc. at the same time there is survival of the fittest and smaller plants are overshadowed by the bigger ones.. plants are attracted to the sun, music etc.
plants of same species can be grown together

Answer 4

"Why is marriage seen as everyday and organic while it asks people to overlook approximately their organic appeal " -- My dad used to tell me while this suitable talk got here up between us various years in the past. He would not submit to in thoughts asserting this, now, yet it is what he suggested -- Marriage would not recommend you will unlike people or which you will not wander away. It basically skill that your probability is lessened in case you think of which you already get at living house what you attempt to get someplace else. there exchange into not something profound in what he suggested. It sounded somewhat ambiguous to me, too. yet i've got by no skill had everybody else provide me a greater valuable rationalization to this occasion aside from the "my marriage works, so which you're incorrect" retort.

Answer 5

Plants have are non rationale living things. They are not able to have feelings. But some people believe that plants can be talked to , etc.

Answer 6

in fact some plants doesnt tolerate to be next to each other even they r from the same specie... matter of wibes