Can plants feel pain, and how does it affect their existence?

Considering that plants lack pain receptors, nerves, or a brain, they do not feel pain in the manner that we, members of the animal kingdom, understand this sensation. Pulling up carrots or trimming a hedge is not a form of botanical torture, and picking apples does not cause suffering to the tree. Nevertheless, it appears that many plants can perceive and transmit physical stimuli and respond to damage in more complex ways than previously thought.

Some plants possess sensory abilities; for example, the Venus flytrap can react to prey and snap shut in less than half a second. Similarly, the sensitive plant quickly folds its leaves in response to touch. This adaptation may serve to deter potential herbivores.

While certain plants clearly demonstrate distinct sensory capabilities, recent studies have shown that other species are capable of perceiving and responding to mechanical stimuli at the cellular level. Arabidopsis (a mustard plant commonly used in scientific research) sends electrical signals from leaf to leaf when it is eaten by caterpillars or aphids. These signals help enhance chemical defenses against herbivores.

Although this remarkable response is triggered by physical damage, the electrical warning signal is not equivalent to a pain signal, and we should not anthropomorphize the signals transmitted within the plant as pain. Plants possess extraordinary abilities to respond to sunlight, gravity, wind, and even tiny insect bites, but (fortunately) their evolutionary successes and failures have not been shaped by suffering, but simply by life and death.