The secret life of plants

[FourMileMarc]

Who here has seen the 70's film? There is an experiment shown where they hook a plant up to a polygraph and start hacking on a plant next to it. The plant on the poly shows an emotional response similar to fear. This is repeated time and time again with the same results. I do not think this is a hoax, I have seen this in other experiments in other documentaries.

Do our tree's get emotional when we hack and wire them, trim their roots? Or do they realize that since we are giving them the utmost of love and care they instead enjoy it. Are we saying "I know what is best for you" and they are saying "You have no clue, dude your going to kill me!" What do the other tree's in the yard experience when they see their bretheren worked on. They know they will be next some day and they are unable to run away. Or do they look foreward to it?

Inputs?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Inputs?

I think this is why they recommend you stay away from bathtub gin...

 

[Redwood Ryan]

Interesting. I think I saw something similar to this on Mythbusters......

 

[Smoke]

Interesting......

 

[Brian Underwood]

Can trees also have orgasms? If so, I think it would be called a treegasm...

 

[Brian Underwood]

Oh, I bet these trees can...

 

[Smoke]

Can trees also have orgasms? If so, I think it would be called a treegasm...

I'm sure they do.....

You tell me

 

[garywood]

The Tree by Colin Tudge is an excellent read. It's a little more detailed than most bonsai enthusiast want but there are a few examples of plant "communication". The book by line is -A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They They Live, and Why They Matter.
Wood

 

[jk_lewis]

Do our tree's get emotional when we hack and wire them, trim their roots?

No. They have no nervous system -- or brain (though these days, there seem to be a goodly number of people with that ailment).

Jim - wishing people would quit using the apostrophe for a plural.

 

[elroy]

Plants certainly "talk". Plants damaged by insects give off volatiles that attract predators of their attackers.

Work in sagebrush has indicated that clipping a plant results in volatiles that prime neighbouring relatives to be ready for an attack but the signal is not as helpful for unrelated neighbours. Ecology Letters 12:502–506, June 2009.

Elroy

 

[FourMileMarc]

According to Cleve Backster plants have a telepathic response about someone thinking about doing something bad to them. I do think this is silly and Clive never used the proper scientific controls. However, there is so much we do not understand as well as much bias in the "mainstream" scientific community. Galileo syndrome still exists now as it did then. I believe it is possible that as animals have electric response forming emotions so do plants but in a different way.

Modern science has a major short coming when it comes to explaining consciousness and tends to shun anyone who thinks outside the box.

From observations in nature I am convinced there are communications between plants and plants as well as plants and insects. Are these communications conscious to the communicator or not is the question. To us, plants just sit there and grow but just because we cannot observe something does not mean it does not exist.

The argument against Cleve Backster
http://www.skepdic.com/plants.html