2007-06-30 08:48:21 · 10 answers · asked by gldnsilnc 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Botany
It has been shown that plants respond differently to a variety of different lights and sounds, that they experience pain, and that they make noises too minute for us to hear. I think they are sensitive, but I don't think they are sentient, since to be sentient there would have to be something used in lieu of a brain, but there isn't.
Sorry.
2007-06-30 08:54:46 · answer #1 · answered by Candidus 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
they have no reason to be
if u think about it mental power relates to how complex an organism's reactions are. We are clever because we are able to react quickly to stimulus and in very complex ways, sometimes even involving using one another. Plants on the other hand tend to show the same responses to change in their environment and if something bad happens there aint that much they can do about it. I think only a sadistic God would make plants sentient cos then they'd realise how vulnerable and impotent they were to change their own destiny.
2007-06-30 19:14:00 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't know about sentient, but I have some plants and they do respond to different stimulus. Different music and talking to them seems to make them grow faster. I don't know but something is going on.
2007-06-30 15:54:38 · answer #3 · answered by Nate126 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I know that technically they are not, but personally they seem to be to me. They respond to care, not just the water and fertilizer. If you go into somewhere like a huge pine forest, the peacefullness is extremely apparent, and I have always been upset about people cutting trees down. I grew up going into the woods alone a lot and then riding my horses in the woods for years and spend a lot of time hiking, and you could definitely feel different things coming from different trees. Also out here in AZ if you are walking out in the middle of the desert, they have these cactus called jumping cholla that feel when you walk by and shoot out these really nasty cactus pods at you with thorns over two inches long on them. They have barbed hooks that stick into your skin, it is the way the plant spreads itself, but whew really nasty!!!
2007-06-30 17:34:25 · answer #4 · answered by inzaratha 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
absolutely!! some more than others, like people!, there is recent research i just heard report on about a week ago....do a search on sentient plant research...sortof presents a dillema to the vegans out there though?
2007-06-30 15:59:14 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
I don't believe that. Go to the website http://skepdic.com/plants.html :
Plants are living things with cellulose cell walls, lacking nervous or sensory organs. Animals do not have cellulose cell walls but do have nervous or sensory organs.
It would never occur to a plant or animal physiologist to test plants for consciousness or ESP because their knowledge would be sufficient to rule out the possibility of plants having feelings or perceptions on the order of human feeling or perception. In layman's terms, plants don't have brains or anything similar to brains.
2007-06-30 16:40:40 · answer #6 · answered by Bernar 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
No. They don't have a central nervous system like we do. They aren't capable of making decisions and choices or of thought processes.
2007-06-30 15:52:03 · answer #7 · answered by Lady Geologist 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
OMG, no!
When people talk to plants, they're expelling a little extra CO2 on them -- that's all.
2007-06-30 15:54:49 · answer #8 · answered by dbucciar 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
no. why would they call a comatose person vegetable if they are? :)
2007-07-01 01:54:57 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋